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Match Facts

Tuesday, December 7
Start time 14.30 (0900 GMT)
Virat Kohli has tormented the New Zealand bowlers, scoring a century and two half-centuries in the three ODIs in the series so far•Associated Press

The Big Picture

August 10, 2010. The day New Zealand last won an international match. As much as winning, losing is a habit too, and New Zealand desperately need to get out of that rut. Dead rubber? Not for them.What is worse than having lost the series in the first three matches is that they have never looked like winning any of the games. The only positive is, they know why they are not winning, and where they need to improve. Their bowlers haven’t looked like getting past the Delhi duo of Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli, who have scored 534 runs off 518 balls between them in three ODIs. The batsmen have been directionless: openers fail, middle order goes nowhere, and Scott Styris is left with too much to do. It hasn’t helped that they have been without their regular opening pair of Brendon McCullum and Jesse Ryder.Somehow, though, New Zealand need to find a way to get that winning feeling back against an India side that, on current form and confidence, will be backing itself to go unbeaten through the home season of 2010-11. It will be interesting if New Zealand can get Gambhir and Kohli out cheaply, and test the largely untroubled middle order so far. Daniel Vettori will tell his bowlers that’s not asking for a lot.

Form guide

(completed matches, most recent first)
India: WWWWL
New Zealand: LLLLL

Watch out for…

Ross Taylor and Kane Williamson Williamson, batting at No.3, has aggregated 75 runs off 147 deliveries, getting off to a slow start each time, and with not too many big hits to count on, has put the rest of the batting under pressure every time. Surely Taylor, who has succumbed to the resultant pressure twice, has to move up to No.3 and take responsibility for the batting?M Vijay has twice been the silent partner in opening stands with Gambhir, and has somehow failed to find the fluency he has in Tests and Twenty20s. A career strike-rate of 65 doesn’t quite do justice to the way he can play. He will want to make the mental adjustment, and get past his personal best of 33.

Teams

New Zealand’s fitness problems haven’t made their job any easy. However, they will be hoping that Brendon McCullum can keep wicket, allowing them to add an extra batsman or an extra bowler to the XI.New Zealand (probable): 1 Brendon McCullum (wk), 2 Martin Guptill, 3 Ross Taylor, 4 Kane Williamson, 5 Scott Styris, 6 James Franklin, 7 Daniel Vettori (capt), 8 Nathan McCullum, 9 Tim Southee/Grant Elliott/Gareth Hopkins, 10 Kyle Mills, 11 Andy McKayIt was strange to see India replace Suresh Raina with Ravindra Jadeja – who has almost always been used as a specialist bowler by MS Dhoni – in the third ODI. Ideally, one out of Saurabh Tiwary and Rohit Sharma should get that slot. With Wriddhiman Saha having already left for South Africa so he can acclimatise himself to the conditions ahead of India’s tour there, Parthiv Patel is all set to play his first international in two years and four months.India (probable): 1 M Vijay, 2 Gautam Gambhir (capt), 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Yusuf Pathan, 6 Saurabh Tiwary/Rohit Sharma, 7 Parthiv Patel (wk), 8 R Ashwin, 9, 10 and 11 three out of Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and Munaf Patel

Stats and trivia

• New Zealand have faced 502 dot balls to India’s 417, which sums up New Zealand’s approach – or lack of it – in the middle overs.
• Virat Kohli has now scored 50 or more in four consecutive innings. Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid are the only Indians who have managed more – five. The overall record, a whopping nine, belongs to one of the finest one-day batsmen ever, Javed Miandad.

Quotes

“I’ve got to ask Ross Taylor [about the wicket] as he knows a lot more than I do. It has got a lot more grass on it and is probably not damp but a little sticky.”Daniel Vettori looks to use Taylor’s experience of playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore”I may just ensure that Yusuf gets to bat with the top-order so he can play enough deliveries and use his destructive batting to good effect.”Gautam Gambhir hints at a change in India’s batting order

Wellington have signed the Australian fast bowler Brett Lee for New Zealand’s domestic Twenty20 tournament this summer, but he will miss half their matches due to his commitments for New South Wales. Lee has joined the England allrounder Luke Wright as Wellington’s overseas players for the HRV Cup, which begins in early December.He is expected to be available for five of Wellington’s ten matches, jetting across the Tasman Sea regularly so New South Wales do not lose him for any games. After an injury-plagued year, Lee made his state comeback in Sydney on Sunday and is hoping to be part of Australia’s limited-overs side to take on Sri Lanka starting on October 31.”It’s tremendous to have secured the services of Brett and his record speaks for itself,” Gavin Larsen, the CEO of Cricket Wellington, said. There will be at least one familiar face for Lee in the change-rooms – his former New South Wales fast-bowling colleague and now Wellington coach Anthony Stuart.”Not only will Brett run in hard and provide a cutting edge to our attack, he will also offer us extra batting power in the middle to lower order and he is a top fielder,” Stuart said. Lee is expected to make his debut for Wellington in their home match against Auckland on December 14.There will be several big names from around the world in the HRV Cup this summer, after Northern Districts signed Herschelle Gibbs, Brad Hodge and David Warner. There were also reports that Canterbury were chasing the Australian fast bowler Shaun Tait, although he will now be out of action until at least early December with an elbow injury.

Nathan Hauritz is preparing for the greatest challenge of his career as he gets ready to face Sachin Tendulkar and his batting colleagues at home early next month. The Australians fly out on Sunday for the two-Test series in India and Hauritz said he was not daunted by the prospect of leading Australia’s spin attack.Although he has taken Tendulkar’s wicket in a Test in India – on debut in Mumbai in 2004 – Hauritz was filling in for Shane Warne and the expectations were lower. As the No. 1 slow bowler, Hauritz must now play a key role in negating Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag and their team-mates, and he said it was the biggest test of his career.”I’d say so definitely,” Hauritz told AAP. “Playing against India in India in those conditions. The wickets where we are playing are not normally the traditional spin-friendly ones, but Tendulkar and those sort of guys, it will be a great challenge.”The first Test is in Mohali starting on October 1, before the teams move to Bangalore to complete the short series. Hauritz has not played since June due to a foot injury but he has the support of the captain Ricky Ponting to remain the first-choice spinner ahead of Steven Smith, who debuted in England.Smith is also in the squad for this trip and, if conditions suit, Australia might consider playing him alongside Hauritz. However, there is no doubt the Australians would expect more from the senior man Hauritz, who took his first two five-wicket Test hauls during the home series against Pakistan last summer.”The main thing is to know my game really well,” Hauritz said. “It’s going to be tough enough bowling against those players, but at the end of the day they are human and they do make mistakes. I’ve seen enough of Tendulkar’s career through the last 20 years to know how he plays and what he likes to play to spin.”I’m going to have my individual plans against those guys and if they don’t work I’ve definitely got plan B and plan C to go from there. It can be quite tough to bowl over there because the wickets can be very good to bat on and the outfield can be very fast.”The two matches are Australia’s last Tests before the Ashes, which begins in Brisbane just over a month after the Test squad members head home. The games are followed by three one-day internationals in India and the Australians also have three ODIs at home against Sri Lanka ahead of the Ashes.

ScorecardDerbyshire celebrated their 1,000th one-day game with a crushing 81-run victory over fellow strugglers Middlesex in the Clydesdale Bank 40 league under the County Ground floodlights.Graham Wagg and Mark Footitt each bagged three wickets to blow away the Panthers who never threatened to get close to the Falcons total of 192 for 7 which was built around Wayne Madsen’s unbeaten 71 from 78 balls – his best limited-overs score.Madsen dragged the Falcons out of a hole after Pedro Collins had taken three early wickets, but there was no way back for the Panthers after Wagg reduced them to 29 for 4 and they were skittled for 110 in bowler-friendly conditions.The Falcons had also started badly in a Group B game reduced to 38 overs a side by rain when Collins exploited an overcast evening and a damp pitch to knock over the top order as the home side slumped to 49 for 4.Collins got the ball to swing late to bowl Stephen Adshead and Chesney Hughes before skipper Greg Smith gloved an attempted pull to the wicketkeeper. A stunning one-handed slip catch by Owais Shah removed Wes Durston for 18 but Madsen supervised an impressive recovery.Dan Redfern started the revival by scoring 23 out of a 51-run stand in 10 overs with Madsen before Wagg and Jon Clare provided some acceleration in the closing overs. Madsen anchored the fightback with a 61-ball half-century and with Wagg and Clare he shared stands of 48 and 41 in the last 12 overs.That left the Panthers to hunt down a victory target of 192 but Wagg matched Collins’s opening spell to shatter their top order. Scott Newman was caught behind for a duck off the second ball of the innings and Shah made only eight before he dragged the ball into his stumps.Dawid Malan drove away from his body to be caught at point, and the visitors were on the slide when John Simpson drove Smith tamely into the hands of short extra cover in the next over. Smith opted to bowl Wagg out to try to remove the last of the recognised batsmen but it was Footitt who condemned the Panthers to defeat by striking three times in his first two overs.Gareth Berg was beaten for pace and pinned lbw before Durston matched Shah’s earlier effort by pouching a great catch at second slip to send back Tom Scollay for a duck.When Shaun Udal edged a drive, Middlesex had lost three wickets for five runs and although skipper Neil Dexter scored 30, there were still 10.3 overs left when Derbyshire completed a resounding victory under the Duckworth/Lewis Method.

Leicestershire seamer Andy Harris has announced his retirement from first-class cricket after 18 years in the game.Harris, 37, took 451 first-class wickets in a career which included an England A tour of Australia in 1996-97 and was Leicestershire’s leading Championship wicket-taker last season.He began his career with Derbyshire in 1993 and moved to Nottinghamshire in 2000 for nine seasons, where his 49 wickets helped them to the Championship title in 2005. A hard working and popular seamer, Harris had the ignominy of being just the third player to be ‘timed out’ in first-class cricket, against Durham University, in 2003.Last season Harris became the last man to dismiss Michael Vaughan before the former England captain announced his retirement from the game. Though he started this season promisingly, taking seven wickets in Leicestershire’s first two successful Championship games of the season -against Northants and Derbyshire – he then found his opportunities limited with Matthew Hoggard, Nathan Buck and Nadeem Malik all performing well.After almost two decades in the game, Harris has looked back on his career with fond memories. “It is with great sadness that I have decided to retire from first-class cricket at the end of the 2010 season with Leicestershire.”I have been fortunate enough to have played for 18 seasons during which time I have played with and against some very special players and some of the finest cricketers to have ever graced our beautiful game. I am honoured to be able to call many of them a friend and it will be strange not to be sharing a changing room with them again.”I always received the most incredibly generous support from players, staff, the media and especially the members and supporters of all the teams I have played for and I cannot thank them all enough.”But all good things must come to an end and now is the right time to move on and I look forward to my future with great enthusiasm. I hope people will feel that I always gave 100 per cent whenever I walked out for their team.”

ScorecardHaving shared two tense contests one apiece England and Sri Lanka’s Under-19s teams could not beat the foul weather at Arundel as rain allowed just 11.4 overs of play in the third ODI. After a delayed start England stuck Sri Lanka in and got off to a good start when Lewis Gregory removed Ramith Rambukwella for 1 but a 50-run stand between Rumesh Buddika and Bhanuka Rajapaksa ensured no further alarms until rain had its final say.The teams have two more matches in their series with next game scheduled for Canterbury on August 12.

The allrounder James Hopes has been added to Australia’s Twenty20 squad for the two matches against Pakistan as a replacement for Dan Christian who injured his calf playing for Hampshire.Christian picked up the problem against Gloucestershire at Bristol and hasn’t been able to recover in time for the matches on July 5 and 6 at Edgbaston. He had struggled to make an impact for Hampshire with eight runs in three innings and two wickets.”It is unfortunate for Dan Christian that he’s ruled out of this series through injury,” said Andrew Hilditch, the chairman of the national selection panel. “James Hopes is being brought in to the Twenty20 squad and is an ideal replacement with the flexibility he gives us with both bat and ball.”Christian has played three Twenty20 internationals and was part of Australia’s squad for the World Twenty20 in West Indies but didn’t make an appearance during the tournament.

Sreesanth, the India fast bowler, has said that he will continue to represent his home state, Kerala, in the Ranji Trophy. He had earlier hinted at the possibility of switching states for the 2010-11 domestic season.”I always want to represent the Indian team as a Keralite and I will continue to play for Kerala”, he said in Thiruvananthapuram.Sreesanth had been included in Kerala’s 25-man preliminary squad but was not named captain. “Though I have not taken a final decision,I might opt for playing for another state in the coming season,” he had told PTI at the time. “Even if I play for some other state, it is because I want to play more cricket, so that I could do well and get into team India.”However, he said that he would stick with Kerala. “I only mentioned my opinion during an interview and nothing more to be attributed to it. Series and matches are coming and I am working hard to be part of the [Indian] team.”

Kent 474 and 150 for 5 Essex 341
Scorecard
Tom Westley held the Essex innings together with 132•Getty Images

Kent will go into the final day of their Championship dual against Essex at Chelmsford with a lead of 283 with five second-innings wickets remaining.After Essex had been bowled out for 341 to leave their opponents with anadvantage of 133, the visitors reached the close on 150 for 5 in their secondinnings. Tom Westley’s 132, which equalled his career best, provided the backbone of theEssex innings after they had begun the day needing to reach 325 to avoidfollowing on.They largely succeeded in that quest through the efforts of Westley and Ryanten Doeschate, despite some fine bowling by paceman Azhar Mahmood who went on toclaim five for 63 in 25.2 overs.After James Foster was caught at slip with only four added to the overnighttotal of 172 for 4, Westley and Ten Doeschate were to revive Essex with astand of 115 before it was broken just after lunch. Makhaya Ntini ended it by trapping Ten Doeschate lbw for 66 that included eightfours and a six.When Westley’s superb effort, spanning six-and-a-quarter hours, was ended by abrilliant diving catch by Joe Denly at mid-off, an innings that included 19boundaries, Essex were still 22 short of avoiding the follow-on with only twowickets left.But a few belligerent strokes by David Masters banished such fears beforeMahmood removed Chris Wright and Danish Kaneria to complete his five-wickethaul. When Kent set out to build upon their sizeable lead, they contrived to giftwickets to their opponents.Denly was needlessly run out when called through for a single by Robert Key,who then put up a simple catch to Masters at mid-on. Wright did produce a good delivery to have Martin Jaarsveld taken at first slip by Alastair Cook, but then Geraint Jones managed to pull a long hop into the hands of Billy Godleman at mid-wicket.Kent then lost their fifth wicket when Darren Stevens was removed lbw byKaneria with a delivery that kept low, but 20-year-old Sam Northeast survived toreach the close just one run short of his second half century of the match -although not without a degree of good fortune.He was involved in a controversial incident shortly before the close when TimPhillips dived forward to hold what he believed to be a return catch. However,after umpires David Millns and Nigel Cowley had consulted, the batsman was giventhe benefit of the doubt. Then in the final over of the day, Northeast was put down at first slip when Cook failed to accept an easy chance.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
AB de Villiers continued to be in sparkling form•Associated Press

South Africa wrapped up their sixth successive bilateral series against West Indies after their well-oiled pace machine steamrolled the home side on a barely responsive track in Dominica. AB de Villiers’ fluent half-century was the centerpiece of what had seemed a small South African total, but a string of soft dismissals undermined the chase and extended West Indies’ winless streak against Graeme Smith’s side to nine.West Indies made a bright start to their pursuit of 225 but Chris Gayle fell in the sixth over after two balls that highlighted his hit-or-miss style: an awesome strike shipped the first delivery over midwicket for six, the next ball was met with a footwork-free slash which ended up as a top edge to slip. His opening partner, Dale Richards, played a nervy innings interspersed with some confident hits like the eye-catching drive over mid-on for four off Charl Langeveldt.At 58 for 1 after 11 overs West Indies were coasting, but the introduction of the bowler of the series so far, Morne Morkel, gave the visitors hope. In his first over, he had Richards edging to Jacques Kallis as the batsman tried for the umpteenth time to guide the ball to third man. In his next over, he proved too quick for Darren Bravo, who was struck in front of middle stump. The home side were now 63 for 3, and Morkel’s figures after two short spells were 4-0-5-2 .The potentially explosive but brittle West Indian batting now needed the experienced Shivnarine Chanderpaul to anchor the innings. His brand of no-risk cricket – cutting out the showbiz shots and poking the ball into the gaps for singles – took West Indies to 85 for 3 after 20, before Kallis had him nicking to the keeper. de Villiers pouched another one soon after when a pacy Steyn bouncer flew off Dwayne Bravo’s glove.The asking-rate was still manageable and West Indies had a chance if their big-hitters, Kieron Pollard and Darren Sammy, knuckled down and played some sensible cricket. However, they were tied down by a barrage of short balls from the South African quicks and they decided to take the batting Powerplay in an attempt to pick up some boundaries.However, the West Indian challenge was soon snuffed out in the 30th over from Langeveldt in which three wickets went down. Pollard’s international career remains a pale imitation of his glittering domestic Twenty20 one, and he wasted another chance to win over West Indian fans by slashing straight to backward point when on 10. Sammy followed four deliveries later, looking for the big hit but only edging to the keeper.The softest dismissal of the innings was of Jerome Taylor off the final delivery of that Langeveldt over: he screamed ‘Go, go, go’ to his partner after pushing the ball to mid-off but jogged for most of what he thought was a simple single, before sprinting the last few yards which didn’t prove enough to beat a direct hit from Steyn. West Indies were 118 for 8 and the series was gone.The home side’s batting was in sharp contrast to their spirited bowling and fielding earlier in the day, their best effort in the field this series. Though the South African top-order was mostly untroubled in the initial Powerplays, Gayle’s men fought back to bowl the visitors out with nearly three overs remaining.Despite a quiet spell midway through the innings following the loss of Smith and Jacques Kallis in the space of five overs, South Africa were well placed at 146 for 3 after 31 overs, with de Villiers confidently moving towards yet another half-century. However, two of their youngsters, Alviro Petersen and David Miller, couldn’t deliver when needed and South Africa slid into a hole.That meant de Villiers had to play out the final 15 overs with players who weren’t quite accomplished with the bat. He regularly waltzed down the track even to the quicker bowlers and placed the ball adroitly to score at a brisk pace even when the rest floundered. It seemed South Africa were set to hit top gear when he clobbered a huge six over midwicket in the 38th over, but the bouncer which struck Johan Botha above the eye snapped the momentum.Another burst of wickets followed, including the run-out of de Villiers to a slide-rule throw from Benn at mid-off. South Africa had no specialist batsmen left for their batting Powerplay and ended up with just 224, but their aggressive fast bowling ensured it was enough to clinch the series.