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Ricky Ponting thought he had India under pressure from the very first ball and Mahendra Singh Dhoni conceded that India were “never really in the game,” as the two rival captains addressed contrasting press conferences soon after Australia took an unassailable 3-1 lead in this seven-match series. While Ponting was detailed and articulate in his responses, Dhoni understandably had less to say, and though he was jovial and doing his best to keep his humour, clearly did not enjoy the way things had gone.”I’m not sure if we outsmarted India but we certainly outperformed them, especially the way Mitchell [Johnson] and Brett [Lee] bowled with the new ball. We assessed our last performance [in Chandigarh] and even when we lost I didn’t think we did that much wrong,” said Ponting. “We tightened up on a lot of areas that we felt we needed to. I always say that we play better cricket in a tournament or series as the games proceed. We certainly played our best game today. We did everything right with the bowling and fielding and then to chase the target down with only one wicket down on a wicket that was tough to bat on against spin was really good. It’s almost as good as any one-day win we’ve had I think.”When asked what went wrong for India, Dhoni began by popping the question right back at the journalist. “What went wrong? Apart from the toss everything went wrong. We lost early wickets and never came back into the game,” said Dhoni. “Then when we bowled we didn’t get the breakthroughs. Their batsmen were beaten early on but didn’t nick any. We were never really in the game.”The one thing the two captains agreed wholeheartedly on was Sachin Tendulkar’s batting in his 400th ODI. While other batsmen scratched around or perished before they had the chance to do so, Tendulkar was in sublime touch, scoring 47 and looked good for a lot more. “Sachin was the only one who was dominating, apart from the ball that got him,” said Dhoni. “It was like he was batting on one wicket and the rest of us were struggling on some other wicket.” And Ponting did not hold back when talking about Tendulkar’s innings. “Sachin looked very good today. For someone like him he struggled a bit in the last game. Today he drove the ball beautifully,” he said. “Some of the drives off Brett early on were as good as anything you’d see. He was obviously up for it in his 400 th match.”

While Dhoni refused to use being tired – either mentally or physically – as an excuse for the loss, he conceded that the non-stop cricket was making things difficult. “It’s quite tough on the guys. The conditions are difficult, hot and humid here. It’s tough on the players but they don’t really have an option when playing for the country,” he said. “You have to be tough and give your 100%, but when you play four months in a row it does get tough.”Ponting put down his team’s overwhelmingly-strong performance to the kind of preparation that went into this game, beginning with the loss in the last one ain Chandigarh. “You end up assessing things a lot more when you lose. It’s pretty simple when you win. Quite often you end up talking about the same things when you’re winning,” he said. “We had a couple of really good meetings yesterday – first a bowling meeting, then a batting meeting and a team meeting. We spoke of our deficiencies – too many extras, not enough wickets with the new ball, losing wickets at crucial times – we didn’t do any of those things today.”You try and prepare as best as you can for every game. On that wicket I thought I was going to be facing some left-arm spin at some stage so I worked on that in the nets yesterday. Overall our preparation for this game was excellent. We knew it was going to be really hot. We had a light session yesterday and worked on our skills.”Ponting also sought to downplay the issue of on-field chatter that has clouded this series. “I don’t think we were doing the talking at the start of the series. Some of the banter stemmed from our encounter in the Twenty20 game. Some of that spilled over to the early games here,” he said. “The Indians obviously came back feeling very happy about what they achieved at the Twenty20, as they should. There’s been way too much made of this. There hasn’t been any chit-chat since game two and here after game five, we’re still talking about it.”After a performance of this kind, though, there’s really not much need for chatter. The ball, bat and gloves spoke more than enough for the Australians.

Stuart Clark, Phil Jaques and Mitchell Johnson are the three new faces in the list of contracted national cricketers, a 25-member group that Cricket Australia announced today. They replaced James Hopes, Cameron White and Mick Lewis. Brett Dorey, who was also upgraded to a contract after selection for several VB Series matches last summer, has not been offered a full contract.”Jaques, Clark and Johnson have all performed very well over the past 12 months and have been rewarded with contracts, while Hopes, Lewis, White and Dorey’s contracts haven’t been renewed on this occasion,” said Andrew Hilditch, the chairman of the National Selection Panel (NSP). “However, they are quality players and we look forward to them performing well in domestic cricket and putting their name forward again for future selections.”The contracted players are paid a base retainer, which is levelled according to a player ranking system decided by the NSP. Each player also receives match fees, tour fees and prize money for on-field success.List of contracted playersNathan Bracken, Stuart Clark, Michael Clarke, Daniel Cullen Adam Gilchrist, Jason Gillespie, Brad Haddin, Matthew Hayden, Brad Hodge, Brad Hogg, Michael Hussey, Phil Jaques, Mitchell Johnson, Michael Kasprowicz, Simon Katich, Justin Langer, Brett Lee, Stuart MacGill, Damien Martyn, Glenn McGrath, Ricky Ponting, Andrew Symonds, Shaun Tait, Shane Warne, Shane Watson.

Adam Gilchrist says the players still don’t know what to expect at the Twenty20 World Championship as they will be competing for a trophy, unlike earlier international matches where entertainment was the key. “I think there is a little bit of unknown as to what’s going to happen,” Gilchrist said before Australia’s departure to South Africa.”We’ve tasted Twenty20 cricket, and it’s been a real entertainment package, but in every game we played there’s never been anything up for grabs. It’s almost been like an exhibition game if you like.”Three players including Ricky Ponting have stayed back but are expected to join the team before Australia’s first match against Zimbabwe on September 12. Ponting cited “private family reasons”, while Shane Watson has a hamstring problem and Stuart Clark is attending to his ill son.Gilchrist, who will lead the team in case Ponting misses out, said it would be interesting to see how teams approached the tournament. “I’ve no doubt that once we get there, and given that there’s a world title up for grabs, it will get serious,” he said. “But I do hope the entertainment factor stays. I would encourage everyone to try and embrace that entertainment part of the game.”He said the World Championship might push administrators to consider slotting in more Twenty20 matches in international schedules, though perhaps at the expense of one-day internationals. “I think world cricket will have a clearer understanding of how serious, how much we need to play Twenty20 cricket and what role it will have in the cricket calendar [by the end of the tournament],” he said.”I don’t know necessarily if it will be the be all and end all of Twenty20, but I do think it’s here to stay for a number of reasons … and it may be a case of, if Twenty20 cricket continued to grow, it might limit the 50-over game to a certain extent, with the need to tailor the program to fit both in.”The Twenty20 World Championship starts on September 11, with the final to be played in Johannesburg on September 24.

Ramnaresh Sarwan, the West Indies vice-captain, hasbeen ruled out of the five-match ODI series againstPakistan due of a foot injury, sustained duringthe final day’s play of the Test series againstPakistan.Sarwan was batting on 35 when he was struck on theright foot by a vicious, swinging yorker from Umar Gulduring the 32nd over the West Indian second innings inthe morning session. He immediately fell to theground, in visible pain. After a few minutestreatment, he was carried off the field by trainers.He was taken to a local hospital for X-rays, whichconfirmed a small hairline fracture in his rightinstep. He will fly back to the West Indies before theODI series.Sarwan was recalled for this match after being droppedfor the second Test in Multan because of poor form. Inthe first innings, he had been bowled for a duck byGul, from another reverse-swinging yorker.Sarwan is a vital member of the West Indies ODI sideand widely regarded as one of the most accomplishedODI batsmen in world cricket. Though his form duringthe DLF Cup in Malaysia and the Champions Trophy inIndia was patchy, he averages over 44 from 115matches.

As a part of their World Cup build-up plans, India will host West Indies and Sri Lanka for a series of one-day internationals in January and February. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the itinerary yesterday for a total of eight matches, four each against West Indies and Sri Lanka.India host West Indies in the first leg of the series, with the first ODI on January 21 at Nagpur. The next two games, at Cuttack and Chennai, will be day-night matches. Sri Lanka will play a warm-up game in Mumbai on February 6 before their first game at Pune two days later.West Indies’ will have happy memories of their last bilateral one-day series in India, in 2002-03, when the triumphed in a thrilling seven-match rubber. Sri Lanka, though, will not have too many fond memories of their trip last year when India thumped them 6-1. However, next year’s series promises a fair amount of needle with both teams, who’re slotted in the same World Cup pool, trying to gain the advantage before the big event.West Indies in IndiaJan 21 1st ODI Nagpur
Jan 24 2nd ODI Cuttack (d/n)
Jan 27 3rd ODI Chennai (d/n)
Jan 30 4th ODI Baroda
Sri Lanka in India Feb 6 Warm-up match Mumbai
Feb 8 1st ODI Pune
Feb 11 2nd ODI Rajkot
Feb 14 3rd ODI Goa
Feb 17 4th ODI Vizag

Tamil Nadu, thanks principally to an unbeaten 120 by N Lokesh, were297 for four wickets at stumps on the first day of their three dayKSCA Coca Cola Cup (under-25) tournament in Bangalore on Wednesday.Opting to bat, Tamil Nadu were given a good start with openersRavindra John (69) and SP Lakshmi Kumar (6) putting on 63 runs off20.3 overs. John who dominated the scoring was second out at 102 inthe 32nd over. He faced 110 balls and hit 11 of them to the ropes.Lokesh, who had come in at the fall of the first wicket, added 39 runsfor the second wicket off 11 overs with John. He was then concerned inthree more fruitful partnerships. First with Noorul Riaz (18) he added53 runs for the third wicket off 26 overs. Then with J Harish (36) hewas concerned in a fourth wicket stand of 81 runs off 21 overs. Andfinally, Lokesh and Surendra Doss (38 not out) put on 61 runs for theunbroken fifth wicket off 13.2 overs. By close, Lokesh had batted 270minutes and faced 174 balls, hitting 14 of them to the ropes.

Darrell Hair will fight any attempts to sideline him as a result of Sunday’s ball-tampering row. There has been speculation that the four Asian Test nations will try to push him out of the game, but Hair said: “If other people have issues they want to use to force me out it will be an interesting battle.”In a front page interview with Robert Craddock he made it clear he was not going anywhere. “I have always taken a lot of pride in my performance,” he said, “and while I am doing the best job I possibly can I am going to continue.”He also said that he had no regrets about his actions at The Oval that ended the Test a day early. “I stand by what I have done,” he said. “But if anything comes out at the inquiry that proves me incorrect I would accept that too. The process would have been followed. People who know me and the sort of person I am know I would not take action unless I really thought it was necessary.”And Hair denied there were any problems with his relationship with the teams from the subcontinent. “That is not something that is an issue for me,” he said. “There is no problem with me and the subcontinent. I have umpired quite a lot in the subcontinent over the last couple of years and when the ICC have asked me to do a job I try and do it to the best of my ability.”But the former Australian umpire Dick French told it won’t be that simple. “It’s a tricky one,” he said. “If the Asian bloc gangs up on him and says ‘We don’t want him appointed in our games’ there might be trouble. He can’t umpire Australia as a neutral, so he can’t then just umpire South Africa, the West Indies and England for the rest of his career.”Shane Warne has used his column in to defend Hair of claims of racism and bias. “He tries to do the best job that he can, like any other umpire,” Warne wrote. “He goes by the letter of the law and does what he thinks umpires ought to do. It is unfortunate that he has been involved in a couple of controversies in his time, but labelling him racist is unfair.”Ross Emerson, a Western Australian umpire who also called Muttiah Muralitharan for throwing and reported Pakistan for ball tampering, praised Hair for “having the balls to take action”. “There have been a number of occasions when there has been a suggestion or an allegation that a ball has been tampered with but in the end most of the umpires don’t want to do anything about it,” he said in . “If you accuse the subcontinental sides of anything it becomes an international incident. It becomes country versus country and you are called a racist.”Hair will take two days’ rest before the hearing begins on Friday in London where Inzamam-ul-Haq faces charges of bringing the game into disrepute and altering the condition of the ball. “The media criticism has been hot over here … that surprises me,” he said. “But life goes on … nobody died.”

Rahul DravidOn South Africa and their match-winners
They have a good team and it will be interesting to see how they fare in these conditions. Rather than focusing on individual players, we have to look at their whole team. And more importantly, focus on things which we want to do – focus on our processes, our strategies to counter what they throw at us.On the No.3 slot which has seen a lot of experimentation
To be honest everyone’s got this No.3 fancy. Dhoni played at four in the last game so it’s not only at No.3 that we have changed things. In the first game, Yuvraj Singh batted ahead of me when I thought the situation demanded it. Yuvraj played at four in Pune and other places and everyone’s got excited over this No.3. The whole thing about us is we are trying to be a bit flexible, trying to provide guys with new challenges irrespective of the numbers they are batting at. So we will just see what is best combination for the side tomorrow. We did not look to be flexible in the number three area; we are trying to be flexible all round, all through our batting order and even in the bowling department.On whether rankings count in one-day cricket
They don’t necessarily mean that, like we showed, number seven is inferior to number two. It is important what your performances are on that particular day irrespective what your number is. Yes, the rankings are a reflection of your performances in the last year, year and a half or two years. What the rankings reflect is that just because you are number two, you don’t have a right to beat number three tomorrow. You have to play well to beat anyone. We have not done well for a while so that is why we are at the bottom of the table but if we keep doing well, we’ll push our way up.On what will he tell his team
More of the same actually. I would like them to look to grow as a team, grow as players and not worry about the results – only try and get better as a team and that is going to be one of our goals.On the fact that the fifth bowler has not been tested in the series against Sri Lanka
They were tested in Jaipur. Then, they (Lanka) chased 280- odd to win at Ahmedabad. We just try and make the best use of the Supersub. It might not always work. The Supersub tends to get loaded in favour of the team winning the toss. We need to have a bit of luck with the Supersub to be honest.Graeme SmithOn the new boy, Johan Botha
He’s more attacking than most we’re used to. He gets good turn and has variations. But there’s no pressure on him. It’s not make-or-break for him. By 2007, he’ll be ready to win matches for us. Who knows, he might win us the game tomorrow, he’s that sort of guy.On how they will counter India’s top-order batting
I think India are looking at a group of 20 or so. They have some explosive batsmen, but with the ball hard and new, we’ll look to get at them early. We have some plans of our own.On meeting another in-form side
India’s always a challenge but the boys are mentally ready. In these conditions, you need a bit of luck. I think the toss will be very important. But we have to concentrate on our gameplan.On the minimal preparation
These days, the schedules are that way. We go to Australia two days after we return from here. But we’ve made the best use of the three days we got here to prepare.

Shane Watson, the Australia allrounder, will finally make his debut for Queensland in the ING Cup match against South Australia at Adelaide on Sunday. Returning from the India tour last week after playing in the one lead-up game, Watson will represent his home state after spending three seasons in Tasmania boosting his international prospects.Watson, 23, is the only change to the Bulls team that defeated the Redbacks two weeks ago and he will replace the fast bowler Shane Jurgensen. The left-handed batsman Brendan Nash, a replacement for the injured Martin Love against South Australia, has retained his spot.A Greg Blewett back problem has forced South Australia to name a 13-man squad and he faces a fitness test later this week. Following the retirement of Mick Miller and the omission of Mark Higgs, the Redbacks have named two uncapped players in Chris Duval, the 21-year-old Northern Districts fast bowler, and the batsman Jack Smith.Queensland Jimmy Maher (c), Andy Bichel, James Hopes, Brendan Nash, Ashley Noffke, Aaron Nye, Clinton Perren, Craig Philipson, Wade Seccombe, Chris Simpson, Andrew Symonds, Shane Watson.South Australia Graham Manou (c), John Davison, Nathan Adcock, Greg Blewett, Ben Cameron, Mark Cleary, Matthew Weeks, Mark Cosgrove, Chris Duval, Callum Ferguson, Ryan Harris, Jack Smith, Shaun Tait.South Australia have made one addition to the Pura Cup side that beat Victoria, with Nathan Adcock coming in for Matthew Weeks for the match against Queensland, which starts in Adelaide on November 9.South Australia Pura Cup squad Graham Manou (c), Paul Rofe, Dan Cullen, Nathan Adcock, Callum Ferguson, Greg Blewett, Ben Cameron, Mark Cleary, Mark Cosgrove, Tom Plant, Jack Smith, Shaun Tait.

Australia will play the World XI in Test and one-day matches after confirming their status as the No. 1 ODI team by winning the VB Series. While the cut-off date for the rankings is April 1, Australia’s defeat of Pakistan means New Zealand cannot now overtake them on the ICC one-day table. Australia will thus face a busy October, with three one-day matches at Melbourne and the six-day Super Series Test at Sydney.Glenn McGrath’s 5 for 27 in the second final has propelled him to the top of the individual one-day list for bowlers – he is also No. 1 in the Test hierarchy – while Brett Lee lifted a spot from seventh to sixth, one place behind Jason Gillespie. Strangely, considering his barnstorming VB Series that included replacing Matthew Hayden as opener, Michael Clarke slipped to 12th place, while Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting sit at fourth and seventh.Jacques Kallis remains the world’s best-rated one-day batsman, and if South Africa win the final three matches of their current home series they will pass England and move to fifth on the championship table.Australia sealed the top Test spot by beating Pakistan in January and their current ICC limited-overs rating is 137, which is 17 more than New Zealand and a point higher than when they won the 2003 World Cup. Australia and New Zealand will play a five-match one-day series starting on February 19.LG ICC ODI Championship table