Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

After India built a 105-run lead, the spinners got to work on South Africa’s inexperienced line-up and made an Indian victory a more likely proposition as the day wore on. Barring Graeme Smith, the top order struggled to smother the considerable assistance that Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble extracted from the pitch. They reduced South Africa to 147 for 5, of which Harbhajan had four wickets. However, Jacques Kallis applied himself and was unbeaten on 52, and his presence will give his team comfort as the game enters its final day. At the close, South Africa were 172 for 5, only 66 in front.A positive start by Smith and Andrew Hall preceded a spate of dismissals engineered by Harbhajan. He cleverly mixed the doosra with offbreaks, and the batsmen failed to read him. Hall attempted a sweep and gloved one to the wicketkeeper after a valuable opening stand of 77. Runs had come quickly till then, as South Africa aimed to wipe out India’s lead as quickly as possible. In his next over, Harbhajan fooled Jacques Rudolph with one that turned in from outside off, leaving him bemused. The other end held no respite. Kumble landed plenty of deliveries in the rough, from where they shot off at troublesome angles. After several unsuccessful shouts for leg-before, he finally induced an edge from Boeta Dippenaar and watched it rebound off Dinesh Karthik’s knee to Virender Sehwag at second slip.Smith had been bothered by Kumble, but fell to Harbhajan, edging an offbreak to first slip after an aggressive 71. He used the sweep well and looked to play both spinners to leg – an approach the others used extensively after his departure. Against the fast bowlers Smith was more commanding. He flicked Irfan Pathan to the boundary disdainfully, and was equally comfortable against Zaheer Khan. His stand with Kallis was just reaching worrying proportions for the Indians when Harbhajan struck.

With Smith gone, the Indians sensed more easy pickings. The fielders came in, the crowd was on edge, and the pitch was affording plenty of turn. Under these conditions, the debutant Hashim Amla entered … and left soon afterwards, when a bat-pad appeal was erroneously upheld. Kallis – fortunate to be there himself after a similar bat-pad went undetected when he had 2 – and Zander de Bruyn played cautiously after that, and stuck to nudging the ball around for ones and twos. They realised, as India had in the morning, that every run could make a difference on this pitch.Karthik and Pathan and the rest of the lower order had frustrated the South Africans earlier. Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini bowled spiritedly for almost the entire session and prised out three wickets, including Karthik for 46, but it used up a lot of time. Karthik had led India’s campaign to extend the lead on the third day, and this morning expectations lay on his and Pathan’s shoulders. But both fell in quick succession.Then Harbhajan and Zaheer prolonged South Africa’s agony in the field, adding 24 in 51 balls, with Harbhajan often resorting to wild swipes and other befuddling strokes. It all ended when Justin Ontong pitched his first ball well outside leg stump, and Harbhajan reverse-swept it to Dippenaar at point.After three days of largely tepid cricket, this Test has finally sprung to life. Much of this action had to do with the pitch, which provided increasing assistance to spinners. With India having far superior firepower in that department, they will be favourites to wrap up the match, and the series, tomorrow.

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Amit Mishra, the legspinner, claimed a five-wicket haul and helped Haryana ease to a comfortable nine-wicket win over Rajasthan at Udaipur. Having bundled Rajasthan out for 202, Haryana hunted down the 92 in just 21.3 overs and ensured their spot in the semi-finals. Chetan Sharma and Sunny Singh shared a 67-run stand and set up the emphatic win.
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The two points that Services snapped up from the drawn encounter was enough to take them to the last-four stage. Services didn’t attempt to push for a result at any stage and even their tailenders, Arun Sharma and Fazil Mohammad, cashed in with 51 apiece. Vidarbha got a chance to bat for only 12.2 overs in their second innings as the game meandered towards a dull draw.
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Jharkhand fell 22 run-short in a nail-biting chase against Himachal Pradesh at the Keena Stadium in Jamshedpur. Chasing 155 for victory, Jharkhand resumed the final day on 110 for 6 but only Santosh Lal managed to cross 20 and they were tottering at 120 for 9. A 35-run stand for the last wicket, between Mihir Diwakar and Shankar Rao, gave them hope but Ashok Thakur, the left-arm medium pacer, sealed HP’s triumph in the 21st over of the day. Despite this loss, Jharkhand got through to the last-four stage due to their superior net-run-quotient compared to Orissa.
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Keraa completed a consolation victory in their last league game against Jammu & Kashmir at Palaghat. Both teams had no chance of qualifying for the semis and J&K’s brave bid to reach 461 was thwarted by Ananthapadmanabhan, the legpinner, and he finished with 5 for 51. Most of the J&K batsmen managed starts but none could stay there too long to force a draw.
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The dead rubber between Goa and Tripura, where both teams had no chance of qualifying for the semis petered out to a tepid draw. Even three innings weren’t completed and Goa ended their second innings on 190 for 8. Tushar Saha, the left-arm medium pacer, finished with 5 for 65 but by then the game was over as a contest.

New Zealand Cricket has decided that Hamilton will not host a one-day international during Australia’s tour which starts next month. Westpac Park was scheduled to host the fourth match of the series on March 2, but following criticism of the pitch there during New Zealand’s match against the FICA World XI on January 26, the board decided that an alternative venue would be sought.Martin Snedden, NZC’s chief executive, said that the pitch had probably not settled completely since being laid in April 2004, and indicated that it might not match up to international standards. “We have decided to move the Australian ODI as we can’t afford to risk the pitch for that match not being up to international standard. We need to ensure the match is played on a good-quality surface.” The match is likely to shift to Auckland, Christchurch or Wellington.”The Hamilton City Council has done tremendous work improving facilities and upgrading the quality of the ground at Westpac Park,” said Snedden. “The issue with the wicket block is likely to be short term. With the exception of the pitch issues there were a large number of positives from the day [the January 26 match] which showed that the venue has the ability to successfully host ODIs.”We made the decision to play Wednesday’s match at Westpac Park based on previous experience with Waikari wicket-blocks. We had expected that the block would have settled enough to allow an acceptable playing surface to be prepared. That wasn’t the case, and ultimately the responsibility for that decision rests with NZC.”I am happy with the efforts of the Westpac Park turf-management team. The issue appears to be one with the block not settling as quickly as would be expected, rather than with the preparation of the playing surface.”The pitch at Hamilton came in for severe criticism, with Shane Warne, the World XI captain, suggesting that it wasn’t upto international standards. The World team was bundled out for 81 in that game, and the match finished in just more than 35 overs, forcing the sides to play a ten-overs-a-side game.

Mark Cosgrove, who was dropped for the Pura Cup match against Victoria, has been dumped from South Australia’s ING Cup side for the game against Western Australia at the WACA on Friday. Daniel Harris replaced Cosgrove in both teams and is the only change to the squad that beat New South Wales on January 23.South Australia Graham Manou (capt, wk), Ryan Harris, Nathan Adcock, Mark Higgs, Greg Blewett, Trent Kelly, Daniel Cullen, Paul Rofe, Callum Ferguson, Shaun Tait, Daniel Harris, Shannon Tubb.

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Trinidad & Tobago made a steady reply to Jamaica’s first-innings score of 316 by reaching 217 for 5 at the end of the second day. Fifties by Denesh Ramdin and Lendl Simmons – who added 115 for the third wicket – plucked Jamaica out of a precarious position at 43 for 2. Ramdin’s 84 was his highest score in his fledgling first-class career. His dismissal, just before play ended, tilted the balance back towards Jamaica.In the morning, Donovan Pagon reached his hundred (104 not out) in the company of the lower order. But Jamaica could add only 23 runs to their overnight total, as Reyad Emrit picked up the final wickets to end with 5 for 55 – his third five-wicket haul in only his ninth first-class game.Personal tragedy struck Shazam Bawah, who had to withdraw from the Trinidad & Tobago side upon hearing about the demise of his father. His withdrawal came as a blow to T & T as they sought to win first-innings points.

South Africa 380 for 6 (Prince 101*, Kallis 58) lead Zimbabwe 265 by 111 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Ashwell Prince struck his maiden century in his ninth Test as South Africa finally took control on the second day at Centurion. He showed the application that had been missing from his colleagues after Zimbabwe had kept them in check for the first two sessions. His partnership of 118 with Jacques Kallis finally overcame the spirited efforts of the Zimbabweans who produced their best performance on tour.Prince, who made his debut against Australia in 2001-02, was particularly strong through the off side, but had a huge slice of luck when he was dropped on 53, the second catch put down during the day. His partnership with Kallis finally took the steam out of Zimbabwe, who had chipped away manfully. Kallis did not appear until No 7, resting his injured hip, but was quickly into his stride. He notched up yet another half-century but after batting cautiously to ensure he would be around for the new ball, dragged Heath Streak into his stumps (338 for 6). The batsmen looked in no real hurry, but they may be down to three fit bowlers in the second innings and wanted to make their lead as large as possible.Zimbabwe’s attack started to wilt towards the end of play, and Nicky Boje took advantage of some loose offerings to boost the lead. Zimbabwe were not helped when Tatenda Taibu had to leave the field with a shoulder problem, thrusting the wicketkeeping duties to Barney Rogers.Until the final session there had been a feeling that South Africa’s batting was fairly slap-happy – a hangover from the complacency shown on the first day. Each time a batsman, or partnership, had looked like breaking loose Zimbabwe struck back. Much credit has to go to Graeme Cremer, who suffered a fierce pasting at Cape Town, but bowled 26 overs off the reel here, picking up two vital wickets. Jacques Rudolph, dropped before lunch, never looked on song before dragging Cremer onto his stumps via a bottom-edge and boot (133 for 3).Herschelle Gibbs was very comfortable at the crease – maybe too comfortable – and the return of Streak for a second spell caught him off guard. Streak began to find the rhythm that has eluded him so far this series, and had a huge appeal for caught behind turned down. Four balls later he forced Gibbs into playing a strangely loose pull shot, the ball looped in the air and Taibu ran around to short fine-leg to take the catch (194 for 4).Mark Boucher’s wicket was well deserved as it came through some good captaincy from Taibu. He had just moved Hamilton Masakadza into short extra-cover and Boucher obligingly drove a catch straight to him (219 for 5). Credit, too, must go to Cremer, who was good enough to induce the shot.

The first hour suggested there would be a similar mauling on the cards to Newlands. Graeme Smith and AB de Villiers tucked into the new ball against Christopher Mpofu and Streak, as the opening bowlers failed to find a consistent line and length. However, just as Taibu was starting (or continuing) to look lost Elton Chigumbura removed Smith. He went for a pull but could only top-edge to deep midwicket, where Rogers called loud enough to prevent a collision as three fielders converged (93 for 1). The expression from Smith, the bowler and the crowd suggested it was a surprise all round. de Villiers then seemed to lose concentration as well, playing an expansive drive at Mpofu and edging a catch to Masakadza at first slip, who held on well (106 for 2).South Africa have had a somewhat dismissive attitude towards this match, but today’s Zimbabwe performance has made them sit up and take notice. They should go on and win quite comfortably, but the ruthless side that was on view at Cape Town seems to have retreated once again.How they were outSouth AfricaTop-edged pull to deep mid-wicketExpansive drive, edged to first slipInside-edge onto foot, rolled back into stumpsTop-edged pull, looped in the air, keeper ran round to catchDrove to short extra-coverInside-edge onto off-stump