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Innings of the dayRoss Taylor began his innings on Wednesday afternoon with an unflattering accolade from the PA man ringing in his ears: “With a highest score of 17 …” boomed the announcement as he strode out to bat. But Taylor put all such insecurities to one side and set about proving that he’s more than just a one-paced wonder. His mighty hitting was there to see when the delivery merited the shot, but for the most part he played straight and late, and made crease occupation his primary concern. It was an eye-opening performance from a man who’d been under-estimated after failing in his first two Tests.Shot of the dayDaniel Vettori didn’t need to play too many expansive strokes in his beautifully paced innings. The majority of his 12 boundaries came from dabs behind square and sweeps through midwicket, as he waited for England to err in line on a decidedly sluggish pitch. But he did enjoy one majestic moment when Monty Panesar floated a full-length delivery right into the arc of his bat. Down he dropped to one knee, and deposited the ball clean over long-on. Two balls later he was back to basics, with a sweet late cut that whistled to the third-man fence.Bowling change of the dayNot a lot went right for England in the field. Their front-line bowlers were off the pace and the pitch was unforgiving, and midway through the afternoon session, Michael Vaughan turned to his last resort. Kevin Pietersen has pretensions as an offspinner – indeed that is what he was when he played against England for KwaZulu-Natal in 1999-2000. But no-one quite expected him to have such an immediate impact. Ross Taylor allowed himself a solitary sighter, then launched into a mighty mow towards midwicket. The ball spiralled straight up in the air, and Pietersen claimed his third Test wicket.Just desserts of the dayRyan Sidebottom has earned a justifiable reputation as England’s most luckless bowler. Against India and Sri Lanka last year, if a catch was going to be dropped, it would doubtless be off one of his deliveries. But in Hamilton he’s at last earned a measure of payback. First there was Alastair Cook’s outstanding pluck at gully to remove Stephen Fleming, and then today, just when it seemed he’d run out of time to massage his figures, he popped up with two wickets in three balls to give them the sheen they deserved. He left the field with 4 for 90 in 34.3 overs. A testament to a job very well done.Improbable coincidence of the dayYesterday Matthew Bell cleaned up his namesake, Ian Bell, with a whistling pull shot that clattered into his right wrist as he took evasive action at short leg. Today, Matthew – also positioned beneath the lid – got his comeuppance courtesy of England’s captain, Michael Vaughan. Jeetan Patel served up a short ball, Vaughan pulled hard, down into the ground and back up into Bell’s outstretched left fingertip. Blood poured out, presumably from a removed nail, and off he trooped to join the casualty ward.Duff dismissal of the dayAlastair Cook scored a century in his most recent Test innings, at Galle in December, and had been easing benignly along on a pitch that was proving to be as dead as the England bowlers had claimed. But then, with five overs to go until the close, he pulled loosely at the tireless Chris Martin, and the substitute fielder Nick Horsley pouched a simple catch at square leg. Cook was kicking himself as he left and rightly so. Once again England’s inability to convert promising starts into prolific finishes had undermined their day’s work.

Duleep Trophy, after three seasons of being the season kick-off tournament, has got back its due status: of a tournament played after the Ranji Trophy in which the season’s best players compete. It is back to the 75 best players outside the Indian side taking up the unique challenge of competing through zonal teams made up of the best from various states in the respective zones. To add to the competition, England Lions will be the visiting team this year. Cricinfo takes a look at the build-up of the six teams

Central Zone
Last time Mohammad Kaif led the Central Zone side, they won the Duleep Trophy in 2004-05. By the semi-final stage of the Ranji Trophy this year, Kaif – by then certain to be the Central Zone captain – would have quite enviably started thinking how to utilise the most potent attack in the country: pace bowlers – Praveen Kumar, Sudeep Tyagi, Pankaj Singh and Sanjay Bangar, and spinners – Piyush Chawla, Murali Kartik and Praveen Gupta. Following the Ranji final, some of the confusion must have cleared as Kumar and Chawla have been released to join the Indian team for the ODIs in Australia. But the attack, even without the two, should pose a threat to most of the batting line-ups.In Tyagi and Bangar, they have the leading wicket-takers from the Super and Plate Leagues respectively. Pankaj, before leaving for Australia, had taken 26 wickets from five matches.If the Centrals Zone’s bowling attack is enviable, Kaif is left with the unenviable task, just like with Uttar Pradesh, of leading an unproven batting line-up. Apart from him and Tanmay Srivastava, centurion in the Ranji final, Rajasthan’s Robin Bist and Vineet Saxena are the only two batsmen from the Super League. Harshad Rawle scored a century in the Plate final. The batting is yet to look the strongest, but if they can give their bowlers enough runs they could go close to repeating the success of 2004-05 – Kaif, Bangar, Kartik and Naman Ojha were members of that side too.England Lions
In 2003-04 when India started the experiment of inviting one foreign team to play the Duleep Trophy, England ‘A’ were the first visitors. A team that comprised of Kevin Pietersen, Simon Jones, Matt Prior and Sajid Mahmood lost both their matches outright, including a successful 503-run chase by South Zone. The Lions, who play Central Zone and West Zone in the league stage, will want to improve on the precedent.Monty Panesar, this year, is their biggest player, and should generate a lot of interest. Apart from Panesar, their captain Michael Yardy, wicketkeeper James Foster, Ed Joyce, and Liam Plunkett have been in and around the England team for quite a while. Apart from Panesar, who will most likely tour India for Tests later this year, upcoming pace bowlers like Graham Onions will cherish this opportunity of playing in subcontinent conditions.North Zone
Delhi, the Ranji champions, deservedly dominate the North Zone’s line-up with six players, but the defending champions will be depleted because of the absence of their key players. Gautam Gambhir, off for the ODIs in Australia, and Pradeep Sangwan and Virat Kohli, representing India in the Under-19 World Cup, also would have made it easily.Aakash Chopra, whose 188 in the last year’s final secured North Zone the trophy, and Shikhar Dhawan will make a dangerous opening combination. Mithun Manhas, Punjab’s Uday Kaul, Services’ Yashpal Singh and Himachal Pradesh’s Paras Dogra will make up the middle order. Rajat Bhatia, easily the most valuable player this Ranji season with 525 runs and 26 wickets, including a big century when Delhi were 36 for 4 in the final, will be just the perfect No. 6 for them.In Sangwan’s absence, North Zone will look to the Himachal duo of Ashok Thakur and Vikramjeet Singh Malik to lead the pace attack. The two took 62 wickets between them this season. Joginder Sharma, who didn’t have a great season, does provide them an option. Chetanya Nanda and Amit Mishra will be their main spinners.West Zone
With three teams from West Zone making the Ranji semi-finals this year – Mumbai not being one of them – West Zone put up a solid challenge at this year’s Duleep Trophy. Parthiv Patel, the leading run-scorer in the Plate League, will lead the side, which boasts of internationals like Ramesh Powar, Munaf Patel, Ajit Agarkar and Yusuf Pathan. In Cheteshwar Pujara, they have the Super League’s highest scorer as well as other heavy scorers, Rakesh Solanki, Niraj Patel and Harshad Khadiwale.Sandeep Jobanputra and Siddharth Trivedi will give Agarkar and Munaf a tough fight for places in the starting XI, if both of them are fit, that is. Then they have Maharshtra’s Samad Fallah as a wildcard. Powar, Pathan and Rakesh Dhurv will make up the allrounder-spinner combo, with Rajesh Pawar one of the reserves.The best part for West Zone is that they have not been hit by selections to the Indian team, so they are one of the strong contenders this time round.South Zone
This hasn’t been the year for the teams from South Zone, who haven’t won the title since 1996-97: Tamil Nadu played it too safe despite having all their games at home, Hyderabad had to fight to avoid relegation, Karnataka were disappointing after Anil Kumble and Rahul Dravid left for national duty. But Andhra and Kerala surprised, with Andhra finishing at No. 3 in their group and Kerala making the semi-finals of the Plate League.

R Vinay Kumar and Sunil Joshi, Nos 2 and 6 on the wicket-takers’ list, are absent from the South Zone squad. There could have been some logic in not playing Joshi, as younger spinners – Pragyan Ojha and S Anish – have been picked, but Vinay Kumar will surely feel disappointed for having missed the selection.S Badrinath, M Vijay and D Ravi Teja will expectedly make the core of the batting line-up, with support from Raiphi Gomez, Arjun Yadav and Swapnil Asnodkar. Sreesanth’s selection for the ODIs in Australia will weaken their attack, with NC Aiyappa and D Kalyankrishna in lead roles.East Zone
It has been a contrasting year for Orissa and Bengal, but it nonetheless ended in disappointment for both. Bengal got relegated and Orissa came within a favourable result of a semi-final and lost. The two states dominate the East Zone side, which has never won a Duleep Trophy. The Orissa players will look to impress furthermore, while for Bengal players this is one final go at an elite first-class competition before they start their fight in the Plate League.The East Zone bowling attack comprises mainly the Bengal attack – Ranadeb Bose and SS Paul – and Orissa’s Mohantys – Debasis and Basanth – who were the key to their success this year.Manoj Tiwary, who fizzled out after a sparkling start to the season, has been given another opportunity, and again he has to carry out the responsibility he failed to do with Bengal: to lead a weak batting line-up. He will have captain Shiv Sunder Das for company. The ones who need to rally around them are Bengal openers Arindam Das and Anustup Mujumdar and Jharkhand captain Manish Vardhan.

Michael Clarke could miss the first Test against West Indies in Jamaica next week following the death of his fiancée Lara Bingle’s father. The rest of Australia’s squad departed for the Caribbean on the weekend but Clarke stayed at home having been given compassionate leave.Graham Bingle, who had been fighting cancer, died in Sydney on Saturday and with the funeral likely to be held later this week it is still unclear how long Clarke will remain in Australia. “My priority is Lara and her family,” Clarke told the . “That’s all that matters at the moment.”If Clarke was to fly out on the weekend he could arrive in Jamaica with as little as two days before the first Test, which begins on Thursday May 22. But a lack of practice – his team-mates will have had a warm-up match by then – means he would be no certainty to play, according to the coach Tim Nielsen.”If he gets over for the first Test, he will need some preparation,” Nielsen said. “But as the Test gets closer, we’ll make some decisions and work out where he is at.”A Cricket Australia spokesman confirmed Clarke’s departure date was still up in the air. “Our thoughts are with Michael and Lara and the family at this difficult time,” the spokesman told . “Michael’s providing support to his fiancée’s family ahead of the funeral and I’m sure that in due course, and when the time is right for both of them, he’ll be liaising with Cricket Australia about his future availability.”Brad Hodge, who was playing in the Indian Premier League, has been enlisted as a shadow player while Clarke is unavailable. However, the original squad featured Simon Katich as the backup batsman and he is more likely to play the Kingston Test than Hodge.

Peter Siddle has admitted he feared his Test career was over after he was ignored for Edgbaston and Trent Bridge, but now hopes a roaring return to his familiar role in the Australia XI will cause the selectors to reconsider their opinion of him.There was considerable dismay at Siddle’s omission from Trent Bridge in particular, and he spoke frankly of all the factors that he felt should have forced his inclusion in the team for Nottingham. “You always think that a little bit,” he said of never playing again. “A couple of wickets that we’d played on where I thought I might’ve got my opportunity and had missed out. You just never know.”Trent Bridge, I’ve had good success there, played county cricket there as well, so I know the ground. It was disappointing, but kept doing everything I can and make sure that if my opportunity came that I had to be ready to go. I felt pretty good coming into this game. It was just nice to get a few wickets, to get the team on a good roll and get us into this position. It’s nice. The boys have played well.”The selectors Rod Marsh and Darren Lehmann had spoken often with Siddle about the numerous and varying reasons why he had been ignored for the Tests thus far. It was mainly to do with their conviction that the attack of Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Johnson and Josh Hazlewood was superior in all conditions. Events at The Oval have begged to differ, as Siddle has played a pivotal role in keeping runs down while adding vital wickets.”I think it’s just the boys that had been playing had performed well,” Siddle said. “The lads finished off the summer well, went to the West Indies and performed well and they got their opportunity. That’s how it works I guess. I just had to make sure I was ready when my opportunity came. I was disappointed it did take so long, but I was ready at any stage. It’s no different now. There’s never any Test match that you never want to have a crack in.”To get back together with the bowling line-up we had – it was pretty similar, a few different faces -and have those five key bowlers and be able to work in tandem. My role is to try and be patient, build pressure and restrict the runs. I enjoy doing that. I enjoy playing for the country. It’s just lovely to be back out on the field and playing, and the team doing well.”A looming tour of Bangladesh would appear not to be as ideally suited to Siddle’s skills, but later assignments against New Zealand at home and away may be more amenable. Siddle is certainly more hopeful of an opportunity now than he had been two weeks ago.”It’s obviously tough being on the sidelines and carrying drinks . . . especially at my age. It’s only 30 but you still want to be out there,” he said. “It has been tough, but to get this opportunity and come out here and bowl well … I’ve felt comfortable, the team has performed well. Blokes batted well and the bowling group has been outstanding. It’s just great to be in this position.”

All Today’s Yesterdays – October 30 down the yearsOctober 29 | October 311962
Birth of the most prolific and durable bowler of all. Courtney Walsh started off doing the donkey work for more naturally gifted practitioners like Malcolm Marshall and Curtly Ambrose, but through skill, cunning and an unparalleled appetite for hard work, he became the top man (his first 63 Tests yielded five five-fors, his last 69 brought a further 17) and the first bowler to take 500 Test wickets. His career has had so many highlights: sealing the famous one-run victory with a snorter to Craig McDermott at Adelaide in 1992-93; that frightening spell to Mike Atherton in Jamaica in 1993-94; almost single-handedly keeping West Indies’ unbeaten run alive in India a year later in the absence of Curtly Ambrose; 13 for 55 at Wellington the same winter; his delirious celebration when he hoodwinked Graham Thorpe with a slower ball at Old Trafford in 2000 … and the historic 500th wicket, Jacques Kallis trapped in front second ball in Trinidad in 2001. Walsh is also a thoroughly decent, hugely popular man who gave outstanding service to Gloucestershire between 1985 and 1998.1976
A sumptuous display of strokeplay from Majid Khan illuminated the first day of the third Test between Pakistan and New Zealand at Karachi. He hammered a century off only 74 balls to become only the fourth man to make a hundred before lunch on the first day of a Test, and the first non-Australian to do so after Victor Trumper, Charles Macartney and Don Bradman.1994
Some fishy goings-on at Kanpur where West Indies beat India by 46 runs in the Wills World Series match. India’s sixth-wicket pair of Manoj Prabhakar and Nayan Mongia came together with 63 needed off 54 balls – hardly on a par with scaling Everest – but they didn’t even bother going for the runs. Only 16 came from those nine overs, and though Prabhakar completed an unbeaten century, he and Mongia were dropped for the rest of the tournament. Raman Subba Row, the match referee, docked India two points (it was suspected that they wanted to meet West Indies and not New Zealand in the final) but ICC annulled that decision. India did go on to play West Indies in the final, and duly hammered them by 72 runs.1955
A marathon innings from Imtiaz Ahmed took the second Test away from New Zealand at Lahore. He took 680 minutes to compile 209, the first Test double-century by a wicketkeeper and also the first for Pakistan. With his side in trouble on 111 for 6, still 237 behind, Imtiaz added a Pakistan-record 308 for the seventh wicket with Waqar Hassan, who made 189. From there Pakistan were always in control, and they eventually squeezed home by four wickets to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series.1963
Mike Veletta, who was born today, is unlikely to figure in any Australian cricket Hall of Fame, but he did play a pivotal role in their seminal 1987 World Cup win. In the final against England he slammed 45 off only 31 balls, an innings that was ultimately decisive as Australia squeezed home by only seven runs. Such chicanery was slightly out of character for Veletta, the man with eyes like Errol Flynn’s. He was ordinarily a dogged opener for Western Australia, and in the 1986-87 Sheffield Shield final he took them to victory with a 762-minute 266. He also had three opening partnerships of over 300 with Geoff Marsh for WA, but at the top level Veletta never really cracked it. In eight Tests he got a number of starts, but failed to reach 50 and ended with an average of 18.1987
England sealed their place in the semi-final of the World Cup with a routine victory over Sri Lanka at Pune. Roy Dias (80) powered Sri Lanka to 218 for 7, but the opening pair of Graham Gooch and Tim Robinson warded off any jitters with a partnership of 123, and an eight-wicket win was completed by Bill Athey and Mike Gatting with almost nine overs to spare. It was the fourth time in as many World Cups that England had reached the last four, but they failed to go all the way in any of them.Other birthdays
1903 Len Hopwood (England)
1908 Peter Smith (England)

Australia 288 (Symonds 88, Clarke 63, Agarkar 6-42) beat India 270 (Ganguly 82, Tendulkar 63) by 18 runs
Scorecard

The opening match of the VB Series didn’t quite produce the enthralling cricket which was on view during the Tests, but it was another close contest which, in the end, Australia nailed by 18 runs at Melbourne. After Andrew Symonds (88) and Michael Clarke (63) – both players who had missed out on the fun in the Tests – revived the Australian innings to take them up to 288, their bowlers just about managed to keep the in-form Indian batsmen in check.The Indians had a couple of heroes in the match: Ajit Agarkar kept the Indians in the hunt with a career-best haul of 6 for 42 to restrict Australia to a sub-300 total, while Sourav Ganguly led the run-chase with a superbly paced 82, but his run-out proved to be the turning point, as the Indian lower order fell away and handed Australia with the first points of the VB Series.The Indian run-chase got off to a splendid, if chancy, start. Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar put together 103 for the first wicket, but the partnership could easily have ended in a single-digit score, as both Sehwag and Tendulkar played and missed on numerous occasions. With Sehwag, a regular dose of play-and-miss was only par for the course, but more surprising was the way Tendulkar struggled to come to grips with the pitch and the bowlers.Gillespie was especially superb, homing in around the corridor and shaping the ball away from the right-handers. On more than one occasion, Tendulkar groped for the ball, which shaped away just enough to beat the outside edge. As if those near-misses weren’t enough to ruin the day for Gillespie, Tendulkar added to his misery, top-edging a pull over the wicketkeeper’s head for six, and then clipping one off his legs for four.Sehwag was rather subdued throughout his 59-ball 35, which finally ended when he dragged a drive off Ian Harvey back onto his stumps. The next three pairs all put together useful stands, but each time a pair seemed to have the measure of the bowling, a wicket fell. Tendulkar fell to a miscued pull off Symonds, which Ricky Ponting, at short midwicket, hauled down with a perfectly timed leap to bring off a one-handed catch (134 for 2). Tendulkar’s 63 came off just 69 balls, but he was nowhere near his best.VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid made 16 apiece, and fell attempting to force the pace, bringing Yuvraj Singh out in a familiar scenario – 94 required at over a run a ball. He immediately got to work, working the ball into gaps and running hard. In the process, he forced Ganguly, normally fairly slack between the wickets, to sprint the twos and threes as well.Ganguly struck the big blows well too, giving himself room to club the ball on the off side and over the bowlers’ heads. The pair had added 62 in just more than nine overs, when Australia dealt the fatal blow to the innings, dismissing both batsmen in successive balls. First, Clarke at short midwicket held on to a scorching drive from Yuvraj, whose 24-ball 25 included just one boundary, and next ball, Ganguly failed to regain his crease after being sent back by Sanjay Bangar (257 for 6). The lower order was ill equipped to deal with an asking rate which had climbed to well over eight.Earlier, Symonds and Clarke revived an Australian innings that was in danger of being bowled out well within 50 overs. After Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden had got the innings off to the customary frenetic start, four wickets fell in the space of 39 balls, as Australia slumped from 59 without loss to 89 for 4. Agarkar caused most of the damage, taking three of those wickets. He wasn’t particularly impressive in his first spell – in fact, Irfan Pathan, with his ability to swing the ball late, troubled both batsmen far more.However, Agarkar was the chosen one for the day, as Gilchrist flicked a leg stump half-volley to Pathan at fine leg (59 for 1), and Hayden slashed one to Yuvraj at point (70 for 2). Agarkar then nailed Damien Martyn first ball with a superbly directed shot ball, which Martyn pulled despite being cramped for room, and top-edged to Lakshmipathy Balaji at fine leg. When Ponting spooned a return catch to Balaji, a dream start for Australia was suddenly going sour, but Symonds and Clarke turned it around.Both were unhurried in their approach, putting the bad balls away in style, but without taking undue risks. Whenever given the opportunity, Symonds freed his arms to awesome effect – Balaji and Ganguly, especially, felt the heat. Balaji was slammed for six over extra cover and then square cut for four off consecutive balls, while Ganguly was tonked for consecutive sixes over midwicket when he pitched short.Clarke, on the other hand, was altogether more polished, essaying some superb flicks and cover-drives, and showing some twinkle-toed footwork against Anil Kumble, whom he pulled with exquisite timing for his only six. Kumble did finally nail him, when Clarke miscued a lofted shot to VVS Laxman at midwicket (232 for 5), but by then, the Australian innings was back on track.Even a rare failure by Michael Bevan, chipping a flick to Ganguly at midwicket for 1 (233 for 6), didn’t affect the momentum, as Ian Harvey chipped in with a vital cameo of 28 from 24 balls. Agarkar came back with a much-improved second spell, though, ensuring that Australia failed to bat out their 50 overs, and ended up with a score which was about 25 short of what seemed likely at the 35-over mark. As it turned out, the total proved enough to win the match for Australia.

Noel Kirsten was the ground superintendent at South Africa’s most famous and beautiful cricket stadium, Cape Town’s Newlands. Apart from paying the bills and allowing young Gary and his brother Paul to attend a good school, the best part of the job was the house that came with it.Gary’s bedroom overlooked the pitch itself, which made studying for exams all but impossible. Dreaming of a future playing cricket, however, was easy. He did that every day.Older brother Peter had already made his mark on the first-class scene by the time Gary became a teenager, and while the pride Gary felt for him knew few bounds, the Kirsten name became a burden throughout Gary’s school and university days.”Every time I was selected for any team, rugby or cricket, people would say it was because of the name. It felt like I had to achieve a bit more than everyone else just to prove myself,” Kirsten remembers.The young Gary never dreamed of playing international cricket, not because he wasn’t ambitious but because South Africa didn’t play international cricket, at least not officially. “The biggest game on the calendar was the New Year Currie Cup match between Western Province and Transvaal. It was played at Newlands and my father used to build a scaffolding platform in the garden so the whole family could watch the match in comfort,” Kirsten recalls with a smile.It was during his second year playing for the University of Cape Town as an offspinner and No. 8 batsman that Kirsten was driven to the next level of his career by first XI coach Duncan Fletcher, who now coaches England.”He made me believe I was good enough to play for Western Province. Until then I’d never thought about it seriously. I played cricket hard but basically for fun and the after-match parties. Duncan encouraged me to take my batting more seriously and give up the offbreaks, which were hopeless anyway,” Kirsten says.It was not long before the young Kirsten was summoned to Australia as a replacement for the injured Brian McMillan in the World Series, which had attracted widespread interest back in South Africa. His introduction to international cricket was anything but romantic as South Africa were bowled out for 69 – still their lowest one-day score – on a deathbed pitch at the SCG. A bewildered Kirsten scratched together four runs from 27 deliveries. In the next game he scrambled another seven from 23 balls.It was a rude awakening but, instead of retiring to lick his wounds, Kirsten fought back. It was determination and bloody-mindedness more than anything else that saw him compile two fifties in the next three games. The nation’s love affair with the gutsy little opener (whom everybody thought of as “Peter’s kid brother”) really started in earnest during the first leg of the World Series final at the MCG when Gary made an unbeaten 112 to earn victory. A win against the Aussies, and a traditionally gutsy, determined South African cricketer leading the way. Gary was the toast of the nation.At Test level a remarkable run of 18 scores between 25 and 76 caused people to question his staying power, and soon enough the world’s international captains were copying the example set by Allan Border and positioning two gully fielders and a backward point to stifle Kirsten’s greatest (some said only) strength.Finally, however, the first of his 21 centuries arrived, against England at the Wanderers in the 1995-96 season. “Every batsman who has ever played the game will regard their first century as a career highlight. It changes everything, your approach, your confidence, your belief. The doubts disappear and you start to grow as a cricketer,” Kirsten says.Two out of three other career highlights came on the subcontinent, though the first is a triple-pronged affair. “Lord’s. Three Tests, three huge wins. In 1994 there was the history of the occasion, the first team back after isolation. In 1998 there was the disbelief of repeating the win so heavily and then, last year, Graeme Smith’s second double-century and Makhaya Ntini’s 10 wickets. And my century, of course. Another huge win and three more names on the Honours Board to go with Allan Donald, Kepler Wessels and Jonty Rhodes,” Kirsten says.Depending on who he is talking to, Kirsten describes Eden Gardens as either “the other home of cricket” or “the real home of cricket”, and it was at India’s most famous venue that he made a pair of centuries to help set up a famous win. “There is no atmosphere like it anywhere else in the world – it’s fantastic. When India are winning you can’t hear yourself think, but when the opposition are doing well, like when me and Andrew Hudson put on 200 for the first wicket, you can’t believe that 70,000 people can be so quiet. I don’t think a cricketing education can be complete without an Eden Gardens experience. To score a hundred in both innings is something I’ll never forget.”Faisalabad is another venue Kirsten will never forget, but purely for the quality and significance of the innings. South Africa had collapsed to 83 for 7 on the first day when Kirsten and Pat Symcox launched a recovery that finished with the opener carrying his bat for a century and South Africa winning the Test – and the series.Glenn McGrath and Courtney Walsh were comfortably the hardest opponents he faced. They dismissed him eight times apiece, with Walsh doing it in just nine matches. “I would have averaged 60 if they’d played basketball instead of cricket,” Kirsten laughs.Steve Waugh is the man he admires most apart from his own colleagues because “he wasn’t, perhaps, the most naturally talented guy around but he turned himself into one of the greatest players of all time through hard work, determination and discipline.”Kirsten settled on the approach that has won so many friends around the world – hard but fair, decent and respectful – after a conversation in the mid-1990s with his great friend, Eric Simons, then a Western Province and national team-mate and now the national coach.Gary had just had his first encounter with the genuine nastiness that players and some nations believe is a necessary component of international cricket. “If that’s what it takes to get to the top,” Kirsten confided to Simons, “then I don’t want to get there.” Simons assured him that his way could succeed too.As the years marched on, Kirsten became more and more aware of the legacy he might leave and that future generations would look to his example. Apart from being the first South African to reach 100 Tests and 20 centuries, his determination to be a worthy and lasting role model extended to every innings.When he was struck a fearful blow to the face by a Shoaib Akhtar bouncer in his 94th Test in Lahore, he returned to the crease for the second innings barely able to see out of one eye. He scored a courageous 46. “I knew it might be an important moment. I thought young batsmen might remember me going back to face Shoaib after being hit and think of doing it themselves,” Kirsten says.Happily married to Deborah for six years and blissfully happy with the arrival of Joshua five months ago, Kirsten has no regrets about leaving the game and starting ‘real life’ – for which he has prepared by studying for a business degree during the last 12 months.A gentleman in every conceivable way, Kirsten’s expertise and experience will not be lost to the South African game immediately as he will now work as a consultant at the national academy. As for the rest of the nation and his fans, their memories of him will probably outlast his lifetime.

They say Dizzy Gillespie, the great jazz trumpeteer, played the trumpet in a way that was nearly impossible to recreate. At the forefront of the golden age of jazz in the 1940s and 50s, he shone among legends such as Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. But even within this group of mavericks, he stood out – his goatee, his beret and glasses and above all, his blowfish cheeks when playing the trumpet hinted at an eccentric among eclectics.Jason “Dizzy” Gillespie, no jazz but all mulleted Antipodean, may yet come to occupy a similar position in this era of cricket. His hair, his sharp features and his bag of tics – the stretches during his walk back to the delivery mark – and his Aboriginal background, embellish his uniqueness. But even more than this, Gillespie and his batting embodies the craving for self-improvement that runs through the side he plays for.Consider the evidence; in the last two series before this, Gillespie, previously perceived a handy but limited tailender, has altered the course of two matches with his batting. His rearguard with Damien Martyn in Chennai was the stuff of legend, and his fifty against New Zealand that of folklore. His reassured presence today might be overshadowed by Martyn’s sublime century, but it turned a tight match, finally, in Australia’s favour. And it will sit comfortably along both the aforementioned innings.When he came in after lunch, Pakistan were buzzing, on top and sensing a sizeable lead on which to build. They had toiled hard during the morning session,keeping Martyn quiet and getting rid of Adam Gilchrist. Gillespie then began the squeeze. It wasn’t that he scored at an exceptional rate for he never does. But he never looked troubled, and ball after ball he repelled; short, quick and to the body was expertly shepherded down off the top of his toes, turn and bounce was suppressed with the forward defensive, tempters outside off were left on their way,untouched. With each delivery, he dutifully chipped away at Pakistan’s spirit. Martyn didn’t farm the strike, there was no need and each time Gillespie pinched singles of the last ball to retain strike, he sent a message to Pakistan. When he scored his fiftieth run today, an easy drive to long-off for a single, he celebrated it, unlike against New Zealand, in a manner more in keeping with that of an establishedbatsman; a low-key, professional salute to all parts of the ground. Job done.After Martyn’s dismissal, in a twist, he farmed the strike and added a final flourish. The fastest bowler in the world was despatched for a couple of fours, but the shot of the day, the most damning affirmation of the tourniquet he had become, was his six over long-on off Mohammad Sami.That he hit it off Sami added a fitting note to the context of this match. There are few cricketers, from Pakistan in any case, who are as naturally gifted as Sami. Ostensibly, he has everything, a graceful athleticism in the field, a smooth untroubled action, frightening pace and a deep reservoir of stamina. Additionally, he possesses a natural aptitude with the bat, a greater one perhaps than Gillespie.Yet, he has had more days like today, when he is limp, insipid and utterly ineffective than he has like the first day at Perth and even yesterday, when he wasdesperately unlucky for most of the day. He growled there, but he backed it with actions. Today, his glares at Martyn after having been hit literally around the park, held an emptiness. His impotence furthered the burden on a weakened attack, and for keeping the Australians within touching distance, the plaudits must go to Danish Kaneria, the gangly leggie. He is not endowed with the natural gifts of his fellow Karachiite, but in his tremendously infectious and willing attitude and Gillespie’s application and determination to better himself, may lie a telling clue to Sami’s frustratingly halted career.For over two days now, Pakistan has competed manfully with Australia. The collapse after tea suggested a disappointing conclusion to a wonderfully taut andtense match, but after Gillespie’s intervention, it somehow seemed predictable. Sami was at the crease at the close, but unlike Gillespie’s presence, his doesn’t suggest a match-turning moment.

Once again, this was not a day to be a bowler. Saturday’s play produced 391 runs for the loss of three wickets, two of them extremely fortuitous. Today, the respective figures were 371, four, one. But whereas on day one, the Australians made every ounce of the running, this time they were forced to do their fair share of the chasing as well.After Ricky Ponting had completed the first double-century of his career, and Adam Gilchrist had added a typically high-octane hundred of his own, Daren Ganga and Brian Lara launched a thrilling final-session counterattack, reprising their efforts in the first Test at Georgetown by adding 158 for West Indies’s third wicket. But the Australians, as always, had the last laugh. When Brad Hogg bowled Lara round his legs for 91 with two overs remaining, the gloss, and several layers of undercoat, had been taken off West Indies’s effort.It was a crushing disappointment for the Trinidad crowd, who have still to witness their hero score a Test century on home soil (his highest score is 96). But after the West Indian torpor of the first two sessions, any emotion was better than none. By tea, when Steve Waugh had declared with Australia on 576 for 4, and West Indies had lost both their openers inside seven overs, a devastating rout was the only bankable option.After that soul-destroying first day, the West Indian fielders emitted a heavy air of resignation as Ponting and Gilchrist strode to the wicket to resume the carnage this morning. Ponting, who is currently batting with an authority scarcely rivalled in Test history, jogged to his third score of 150 in eight Tests with barely a murmur of resistance, and was even allowed a 25-minute net as the new ball was shelved in favour of Marlon Samuels’s speculative offbreaks. The pair added a further 126 runs in the morning session, with Gilchrist shrugging off a half-baked attempt to rough him up to plunder leg-side boundaries at will, and the die was cast.The way he was batting, only an accident or a lapse of concentration could have dislodged Ponting, who became only the fifth Australian to score a double-hundred in the Caribbean. In fact, it required both, as he swept at Samuels and sauntered out of his ground to jog a single, only for the wicketkeeper Carlton Baugh to whip off the bails as Ponting backflipped towards his crease. Umpire Asoka de Silva, who had been gazing idly towards the fine-leg boundary and may have helped fool Ponting into believing that Baugh had not gathered the ball, acknowledged the appeal without bothering with a replay. He was fortunate not to have dropped his third clanger of the innings.All of which overshadowed yet another Gilchrist special, which included 11 fours and two sixes from just 104 balls. Astonishingly, it was only the eighth Test century of his career – somehow, he seems to have scored so many more. Waugh declared the moment he reached three figures, and West Indies were left with the best part of 50 overs to salvage the match. Immediately, the Queen’s Park Oval pitch was transformed as Brett Lee and Jason Gillespie swiftly accounted for Devon Smith, for a fifth-ball duck, and Wavell Hinds, whose frenetic innings of 20 contained five fours and a complete lack of footwork.But Ganga, whose selection ahead of Chris Gayle now looks like a masterstroke rather than a cut-and-paste job, held firm and counterpunched boldly while Lara took time to find his range. When he did, it was a spectacular explosion of strokeplay, mostly at the expense of Stuart MacGill, whose seven overs were flailed for 50 runs. Alas, the pressure of the occasion started to bite with 20 minutes remaining, and he brought down the shutters just that fraction too soon.Andrew Miller is assistant editor of Wisden Cricinfo in London.

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