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Gautam Gambhir was drawing inspiration from his debut Test even as India stared at defeat against England in Mumbai. Eight years ago, at the same ground, Gambhir saw three India spinners run through Australia’s batting to defend 106 in the fourth innings. That after India had fallen behind by 99 runs in the first innings.Gambhir knows, though, that it took crazy innings from VVS Laxman and Sachin Tendulkar to revive India in the second innings. Gambhir is unbeaten on a high-quality 53, but with seven wickets gone and just India just 31 ahead, he knows he will have to at least double his own score to give India any chance.”We have three wickets in hand,” Gambhir said at the end of the third day’s play. “We have to be positive. If Bhajji and I can put on a partnership tomorrow, and if we can get 100-120 ahead, the game is on. If we can be 110 for 7, there is no reason why we don’t have a chance to bowl them out. Important thing is, we give the bowlers runs.”We can’t give them 50 runs and expect them to win us the game. We need decent runs on the board. If we have one good partnership, anything is possible. Even in my debut Test, here, we bowled Australia out for 70-80 [93] in the fourth innings. Anything is possible. It’s a matter of getting runs on the board.”However, even if Gambhir and the rest put on a target of 120 or above for England, their bowlers will need a huge improvement on their effort in the first innings. Gambhir said the spinners didn’t bowl badly, despite a 206-run partnership between Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen, but they didn’t bowl at the right pace on this pitch. “I personally felt that they bowled a little quicker in the air,” Gambhir said. “If you have bite in the wicket, and if you bowl quicker in the air, some balls spin, some balls keep straight.”I felt that at times we tried to bowl too fast, and at times we tried to bowl too slow. It’s important to know what speed you need to bowl on wickets that have turn and bounce. Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann bowled at the ideal speed, which troubled us. We were getting turn and bounce as well, but I think it was just the speed that made the difference today.”That, though, didn’t mean the England spinners bowled better, Gambhir said. “I didn’t say their spinners bowled better than us,” he said. “I just said they bowled at the right speed. It’s not that our spinners didn’t bowl well. If you take out that partnership, none of their batsmen contributed in a big way. That showed our spinners bowled pretty well as well. Important on this wicket is to bowl at the right speed. Maybe they got the idea of bowling at the right speed. That is what Swann and Panesar did.”Gambhir was confident that if he somehow managed to give India a fighting lead, the spinners would show they have learned their lesson. “We won’t come here tomorrow for just the formality,” Gambhir said. “Miracles have happened before. Things can change quickly. Anything is possible if we put runs on board.”

Rob Key, the former England batsman, has resigned as Kent captain after seven years in the post. He has been succeeded by offspinner James Tredwell, another product of the Kent academy system.Key succeeded David Fulton at the end of the 2005 season and led the county to a period of one-day success, becoming one of the longest-serving Kent captains. Along with coach Graham Ford, Key “worked out a plan how we were going to become a one-day side”.The highlight of Key’s captaincy was lifting the Twenty20 Cup in 2007. In 2008, the county lost in the Twenty20 and 50-over domestic finals, which he described as “the saddest point” of his captaincy.He will be replaced by a player as equally part of the furniture in Tredwell who has taken 300 first-class wickets for Kent since making his debut in 2001. Key is relieved to be handing over the reins.”I feel excited about the fact that I don’t have to worry about being captain,” Key said. “And the things that go with being a captain – the off-the-field stuff like what’s going on with your players.”His was a reign of two eras. After recession hit the world in 2008, Kent were not immune to financial troubles “The second half of my term really was like a lot of businesses, like a lot of people around the world where we had to tighten the belts.” Experienced players, notably Matthew Walker, moved on and the club became much more dependent upon their young players.Although Kent gained promotion to Division One of the County Championship in 2009, they were relegated the following season and, in 2011, only Leicestershire finished below them in Division Two.But Key reflects with satisfaction on how he steered Kent through this difficult period. “There’s lots of periods where people wouldn’t necessarily think you’d be that proud but actually those little wins along the way in the tough times, when you’ve got a team of younger players, rather than international players, but you manage to get something out of them when probably no one else thinks you can. They’re the moments I’m probably more proud of than anything else.”Last season, Kent defied expectations to challenge strongly for Championship promotion, before finishing third. “At the start of the season we were miles off, we were on nobody’s radar, no one thought we were going do very well. At times we were the best side in the second division.” Although disappointed at missing out on promotion, Key was satisfied he had left the club in a “decent place” to Tredwell.But Key reflected that he had somewhat under-performed as a batsman while skipper. In the two years before assuming the captaincy, he averaged 70.00 and 59.84 in first-class cricket. As captain, he has passed 1,000 runs in a season only twice, achieving the feat four times before 2006 and his returns in the last three seasons, an average of 31.30 in 2010, 40.68 in 2011 and 37.95 in 2012, certainly did not reflect his talent.Key explained: “I took the job on because I wanted it to enhance my England chances and unfortunately one of the disappointments I had is I was never really able to play at the same level. Whereas before I became captain I scored a hell of a lot of runs. Hopefully with a bit of luck I can go back to being one of the top runscorers in the country.”Even if Key is able to do that, he admitted that a 16th Test cap, eight years after his last appearance, is “probably quite a longshot now”. But he can reflect with pride on his work as Kent skipper.

It speaks volumes about the state of transition in which the England team finds itself that there is so much uncertainty about the make-up of the Test squad to tour India.After several years of continuity of selection and predictability, England find themselves at the start of a partial rebuilding operation. Tellingly, the England selectors put aside two days to pick the side and have delayed the announcement of the tour party until September 18.It is unlikely that Kevin Pietersen will be included. Unlikely, but not impossible. Alastair Cook, England’s new Test captain, is understandably ambitious and knows full well that his side’s hopes of success in India are vastly reduced by omitting Pietersen from his side. For that reason, several meetings have been held with Pietersen over recent days as both sides seek a resolution to a problem that, with a bit of common sense and humility, should never have been allowed to reach this stage.Had Pietersen apologised without caveat, he might have been selected. But as soon as he expressed his lingering resentment over the parody Twitter account, the spectre of more unrest within the dressing room was raised. England will not risk that. If Pietersen is to come back into the England fold, he must do so on the management’s terms, not his.Pietersen’s future is now uncertain. Currently without a central contract, he knows he can, as a free agent, commit to the whole 2013 season of the IPL. But he also knows that by doing so he risks increasing the divide between him and England. If he plays the whole season, he will not be available for all the Tests against New Zealand at the start of next summer. Or, just as importantly, been seen to be fighting to win back his place in county cricket. In the meantime, he should be available for the Champions League Twenty20 and the Big Bash League.He will also be without a county from the end of this month. While Surrey have expressed a desire to retain his services, they will be waiting to see whether he is given another central contract before committing. With Chris Tremlett, who was omitted from the central contract list, already now added to their wage bill, the addition of Pietersen would take Surrey perilously close to the salary cap.There is a possibility – no more than that – that Pietersen will never make it back into the England team. Should Jonny Bairstow or Eoin Morgan, whose award of a central contact virtually assures him a place, seize their chance, or even look as if they are worthy of longer-term investment, there will be no room for Pietersen’s return. The lines of communication remain open and the sense is of a thawing of relationships, but Pietersen has risked ending his international career with this episode. For a man who moved continents to pursue his dream, who worked hard at his game for more than 20 years, who made endless sacrifices and who should, right now, be at his peak, it seems an awful waste.England have a difficult enough job selecting a team to win in India even without the Pietersen issue. Not since 1984-85 have they won a Test series there and to do so with a side in transition and against a foe anxious to avenge the whitewash in England in the summer of 2011, will prove desperately demanding.For a start, none of England’s back-up spin options are ideal. Monty Panesar remains a poor batsman and worse fielder; Samit Patel is not quite strong enough with bat and nowhere near potent enough with ball to be considered an allrounder and James Tredwell, for all his admirable qualities with bat, ball and in the field, has the misfortune to be an offspinner much like Graeme Swann. Doubts about Swann’s elbow might convince the selectors to include Tredwell, but Panesar, for the potency of his bowling and the variation he offers, remains the likely candidate. Patel, with his ability to bat at No. 7, may also win inclusion as he did for Sri Lanka earlier this year.There are no ideal options for the opening batsman position, either. While Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell, among others, could move up the order, such a tactic would be moving a problem rather than solving one. Few of the new options are perfect – Joe Root and Varun Chopra are a little green; Michael Carberry has, perhaps unfairly, a dubious reputation against spin and Nick Compton has scored his mountain of runs this season at No. 3.Chopra might be considered to have an advantage thanks to his reliable slip catching and he scored heavily in Sri Lanka last winter but, on the basis that he has been opening for the Lions, Root is seen as the next in line. He is highly rated by Graham Thorpe, the lead batting coach for the ECB, and is said to have improved markedly against spin over the last 12 months. His offspin should not be relevant – he has claimed only eight first-class wickets in his career – but he has the talent and the time (he is only 21) to develop into the man who opens with Cook in the Ashes.That would mean no place for Compton, Carberry, Chopra or James Taylor. It may well mean no place for Ravi Bopara, too, despite the fact that his bowling would provide a valuable option. But the likelihood that Bell will miss one Test on paternity leave and the need for some back-up for a green opening batsman might persuade the selectors to include a 17th man. If so, the prolific Compton will be hard to overlook. Craig Kieswetter, despite one poor ODI performance recently, may also have moved in front of Steve Davies as reserve wicketkeeper and is an improving batsman against spin, even if his keeping standing up remains a work in progress.More replacements will be available as required from the England Lions squad. The Lions also tour India this winter, though the first two Tests of the main series will probably have been played before their arrival.All that still leaves England with one substantial problem. Their slip catching has been poor over the last six months – it may well have cost them the series against South Africa and, as a consequence their No.1 Test ranking – and it is far from obvious who might be pressed into service in the cordon on this tour.One solution might be to recall Rikki Clarke, who now offers pace and control with the ball, reliability with the bat and the best pair of hands in county cricket, in place of Tim Bresnan who, since his elbow operation, has struggled to recover his nip with the ball. Sadly Clarke, like Pietersen and Panesar, is not seen as quite the sort of fellow that would fit into the increasingly homogenized England dressing room. At some stage, though, if England keep losing, that narrow thinking may be challenged.Possible squad Alastair Cook (capt), Joe Root, Jonathan Trott, Ian Bell, Jonny Bairstow, Eoin Morgan, Samit Patel, Craig Kieswetter (wkt), Matt Prior (wkt), Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, James Anderson, Monty Panesar, Steven Finn, Graham Onions

MS Dhoni, the India captain, has said India have adapted to the change in nature of Sri Lankan pitches better than the hosts on this tour. India won the ODI series 4-1 and beat Sri Lanka comfortably in the only T20 game in Pallekele.”The wickets have changed here,” Dhoni said at the post-match presentation ceremony. “When I first came here the ball used to stop a lot. But now the pitches have been relaid. I think we mastered our bowling and batting better than them.”India made 155 after being put in and while Dhoni admitted that was at least 15 runs short, the swinging ball, he said, ensured that going hard at the ball was not all that easy. “Overall we were really good. The ball was swinging till the 20th over so not easy to slog,” Dhoni said.Irfan Pathan, who was named Man of the Match, took advantage of the swing and picked up three wickets in Sri Lanka’s chase, removing three senior batsmen – Tillakaratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga and Mahela Jayawardene. “Mahela was going great guns. The ball was swinging and we knew that if we got wickets, it would be difficult for the Sri Lankan batsmen,” Irfan said. “Our bowling coach [Joe Dawes] has been keeping a good eye on us.”Ashok Dinda was also among the wickets, taking 4 for 19 – the second-best figures in a T20 international by an Indian bowler – and three of them in one over, including the tail. “The kind of wicket this was, any amount of runs could have been chased so we had that tension too [while defending the total] but in the end we bowled well, fielded well and we won,” Dinda said. “We have been playing a lot of cricket in domestic matches and IPL.”Among Dinda’s strengths is the short ball. “No batsman thinks that the ball will come into the body at this height at 140 kph so in that sense the short ball is a surprise. If the batsman tries to hit, it can go for a six or a four also but at the same time the chances of getting a wicket are also high. Whenever I have bowled a short ball the fielder is at the back at fine leg or square leg.”

Watching Shane Warne’s 1993 Ashes demolition of England from the dressing room, Phil Tufnell is said to have remarked the legspinner’s performances were “ruining my career” by extracting far superior results from the same surfaces. After two matches in which his unfussy left-arm spin has been milked for runs, Xavier Doherty is under a similar level of pressure from his opposite number, Graeme Swann.Both bowlers have one wicket from two matches, but there the parallels end. Swann tied Australia’s middle order in knots at The Oval, and should have taken more than the wicket of Shane Watson, while bowling eight overs for 27 runs. He was principally responsible for the mid-innings torpor the tourists fell into, resulting in a final total England chased with ease.In marked contrast, England have not allowed Doherty to settle into a rhythm, the use of the reverse sweep by Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell encapsulating the comfort with which the hosts have played him. George Bailey, Doherty’s state captain with Tasmania, admitted that Australia’s slow bowler on tour was being set a difficult task, both by the batsmen he opposes and the spinner he is invariably compared to.”They’re not letting him settle, and that’s something we’re talking about with him,” Bailey said ahead of the third ODI at Edgbaston. “The opposite of the way we’ve played Graeme Swann, they’re really challenging Dohey from the moment he comes on, not giving him the chance to get into his rhythm and set the fields he wants.”The way they’re manipulating the field is making it difficult for him to settle, along with probably some pressure of knowing the opposition does have a spinner of the calibre of Swann. He’s probably feeling that pressure a little bit, the comparisons will be there between the two spinners in the game. That’s a challenge for him, but I’ve seen a lot of him, and every time he has been challenged, he normally finds a way to respond.”Just as Doherty must find a way to set the agenda for England’s batsmen rather than reacting to theirs, so Australia’s batsmen need to find a better way around Swann. A greater use of the sweep has been advocated by some, and Bailey said there were plenty of ways to gain greater change from Swann’s bowling than he managed in a halting start to his innings at The Oval.”I was pretty happy with how I played him Lord’s, not so much the other day where I found it a little more difficult,” Bailey said. “I thought he bowled better. That balance of keeping wickets in hand for the final onslaught and to get that total up versus weighing up the risk and reward of putting a bit more pressure on him is something we’ll talk about.”The sweep’s a good shot … there are a myriad of options, changing where you bat, use your feet more, sweep more, you can hit shots you’re trying to hit better. They’re all options and I guess the way he’s trying to bowl is try to limit your opportunities to play those shots.”Bailey is in a curious position in Australian cricket, as captain of the Twenty20 team while still aspiring to a regular place in the 50-over side and a first baggy green cap in Test cricket. He will stay on in England after the conclusion of the ODI series for the Australia A tour, which he said would be as important if not more so than these matches in determining whether he might return for the 2013 Ashes series.”When Test spots have come up over the last few years it’s been a matter of being in the right place at the right time and I don’t think this would be any different,” Bailey said. “I pushed really hard to be on that A tour. There’s a lot of other cricket on around it and after it but it’s something I feel is really important. I just don’t feel this is a time to be missing any form of red-ball cricket.”Proving that you can handle the pressure of international cricket and handle different situations, there’s no doubt it’s transferable from ODI cricket to Tests. But I think to back that up you are going to have to be scoring some long-form runs as well.”

ScorecardKevin McClean brought India A’s fightback to an end with the wicket of Manoj Tiwary•West Indies Cricket

The fast-bowling pair of Delorn Johnson and Kevin McClean combined to put West Indies A firmly in control of the unofficial Test against India A in St Lucia, on day three. After West Indies’ last two wickets had added 16 to their overnight score of 320, Johnson and McClean scythed through India’s top order, leaving them gasping at 35 for 4 while facing a first-innings deficit of 106. Manoj Tiwary and Wriddhiman Saha promised to stage a recovery, before West Indies struck once more, India going to stumps on 181 for 7.In their second innings, India began with a flourish: Abhinav Mukund hit two fours and a six to race to 20 off 12, before edging left-armer Johnson to the keeper, Devon Thomas. Four balls later, the other opener, Ajinkya Rahane also nicked one off Johnson behind. Then McClean had captain Cheteshwar Pujara – he was caught by a diving Kieran Powell at gully. Rohit Sharma fell, caught at third slip, just before lunch.After the interval, Tiwary and Saha rebuilt. They accumulated 95 runs from 34.2 overs, before McClean broke through, trapping Tiwary lbw for 62. Robin Bist did not come out to bat, and was spotted with heavy strapping on his right thumb. While Saha remained not out on 48, West Indies continued to chip away at the other end, leaving India seven down and 75 ahead at the end of the day’s play. The stars, Johnson and McClean, finished with three apiece.

Alan Richardson has become the grand old pro of county cricket after being honoured as one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Year. But it was not always like this. He began life as a teenager at Derbyshire and has admitted: “Cricket was almost in the way of me having a good time.”Richardson took 73 wickets for Worcestershire last season and remarkably, at 36, it was the first full season he had ever played. Few bowlers in the history of county cricket can ever have matured so late.He was signed to Derbyshire in 1994 and by the end of the 1995 season he was already out of county cricket. “I was a 19-year-old kid,” he said. “I had no idea what was expected of me. It was like I was at uni.” It was four years before he played county cricket again.Things have changed now, and Richardson believes he is in the best shape of his entire career. “I have to warm up to warm up, that is the only issue I have,” he said.Richardson, who deferred university to chase his dream of playing cricket, is not sure what job he may do next, but while he was still playing at Middlesex he was offered a coaching position. With 10 wickets against Surrey last week, he can enjoy the game for a little while yet, saying: “The physio thinks he can get another year, maybe two years out of me.”Some players might be bitter about not playing for England, but not Richardson. “I think I should be really proud at playing over 140 first-class games, I didn’t think I’d get double figures at one stage,” he said. “And it’s better than being a landscape gardener.”Watch the interview

Scorecard
Ben Wright scored a century to give Glamorgan a chance of securing a first victory of the season going into the last day against Hampshire at Cardiff. But Hampshire also have their own ambitions of winning. They will resume the fourth day on 112 for 4 needing another 92 runs.That was after Glamorgan made 256 in their second innings with Wright making 104 and Stewart Walters supplying a half-century.The start of the third day was held up for an hour because of torrential rain and hail, with play resuming at noon with Glamorgan on 73 for 3, a slender lead of 20. Walters and Wright continued where they left off yesterday evening, going on to put on a 100-run partnership – the first of Glamorgan’s season.Glamorgan reached lunch at 143 for 3 with the fourth-wicket pair building their lead to 90 with Walters going to his half-century from 125 balls – the first by a Glamorgan batsman this season. But he was out 11 balls later edging a drive off Sean Ervine behind. Despite the loss of Walters, Wright also went to his 50 from 87 balls.Glamorgan reached 200 in an innings at the sixth time of asking before Jim Allenby was caught by wicket-keeper Michael Bates standing up to Hamza Riazuddin. That was the first of four wickets to fall in the space of six overs. Moises Henriques was bowled by Riazuddin who struck again as Mark Wallace was caught by James Vince at backward point, before Graham Wagg chipped the bowler to mid-on as Glamorgan slipped to 237 for 8.Despite the clatter of wickets Wright kept his cool to register the fifth century of his first-class career – Glamorgan’s first hundred against Hampshire for eight years. He reached the landmark with his 13th four in 150 balls. Wright’s vigil ended when Vince took a sharp catch at leg slip off Danny Briggs and David Balcombe ended the Glamorgan innings when he yorked Dean Cosker.Tea was taken with Hampshire set a victory target of 204 and 41 overs in the final session.Wagg struck with the final ball of the first over when Hampshire captain Jimmy Adams edged to Wallace, and the left-arm seamer broke through again trapping Liam Dawson lbw.Simon Katich, the first batsman to score a Test century at Cardiff, in the 2009 Ashes Test, and James Vince consolidated as they put on 41 for the third wicket. Katich survived a loud appeal for leg before off Jim Allenby but there was no such reprieve in Allenby’s next over.Sean Ervine and Vince showed positive intent with the latter pulling Henriques for six, but the Ervine gained his revenge two balls later trapping Vince lbw for 28. Ervine was joined by Michael Bates as they shared a fifth-wicket stand of 44 before play was abandoned for bad light with 13 overs left.

Karachi Dolphins won what was essentially a must-win game for them against Lahore Eagles by five wickets, at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, to secure their spot in the semi-finals of the Faysal Bank Super Eight T-20 Cup. Karachi put Lahore in to bat and kept them to 148 for 8, as all of their bowlers shared the wickets around. Imran Farhat with 41 was the top-scorer for Lahore, and the innings was built around his two sizeable stands with Taufeeq Umar and then Azhar Ali. The Lahore bowlers made early inroads in the chase, before two rapid half-century stands among Khalid Latif, Asad Shafiq and Sheharyar Ghani put the team on course. Eventually Karachi got home with 11 balls to spare, despite a tidy spell from left-arm spinner Mustafa Iqbal, in which he took 3 for 26.Karachi will play Lahore Lions in the first semi-final on Saturday.Sialkot Stallions finished on top of Group B, ensuring a spot in the semis, with a convincing seven-wicket win against hosts Rawalpindi Rams. After Rawalpindi chose to bat, their batsmen struggled to build on starts and score at a rapid pace. Though four batsmen got into the 20s, Rawalpindi only managed to edge past 120 because of a last-over six from No. 10 Mohammad Nawaz. Left-arm spinner Raza Hasan was the most effective of the Sialkot bowlers, claiming 3 for 20 in his four. Chasing 122, Sialkot’s top three batsmen all but closed out the game with partnerships of 50 and 55 at almost ten an over. Imran Nazir ended up the top-scorer, hitting four sixes in his knock of 59 off 34 balls, as Sialkot powered to a win with all of 27 balls to spare.Sialkot will play Peshawar Panthers in the second semi-final on Saturday.

Brad Haddin could be squeezed out of Australia’s Test side if Matthew Wade has an outstanding limited-overs campaign in the West Indies next month, according to the national selector John Inverarity. However, Inverarity said for the time being Haddin remained Australia’s first-choice Test wicketkeeper after an encouraging finish to the recent series against India.Wade and Haddin have both been named in the squad for Australia’s five ODIs in the Caribbean and they will both be part of the group that stays on for the three Tests that follow, although that squad is yet to be confirmed. Wade has overtaken Haddin as Australia’s preferred one-day gloveman thanks to his impressive form in the tri-series and he is also the incumbent in T20s.That gives Wade seven matches in the West Indies, where Haddin will be the backup one-day wicketkeeper, before the longer version begins. Australia’s first Test begins in Barbados on April 7 and Inverarity did not rule out the possibility that Wade could have jumped ahead of Haddin in all forms of the game by then.”There’s the possibility there,” Inverarity said. “At the moment Brad Haddin played in the last Test and we beat India 4-0. Brad had slight fluctuations of form but finished on a high note. At this moment Brad is our Test wicketkeeper. If Matthew does extraordinarily well, of course he comes in to contention there. There’s rivalry in any touring party … there’s nothing new there.”Inverarity said he had been pleased with Haddin’s glovework during his recent Sheffield Shield appearance for New South Wales against Western Australia in Perth, although he made a pair with the bat. And although Wade has become the No.1 in the 50-over format, Inverarity said Haddin was clearly second in line and was needed in the one-day squad in the Caribbean due to the difficulty of sending a replacement from Australia if Wade was injured.”If Matthew Wade had broken a finger, say in ODI four [in the Commonwealth Bank Series], Brad Haddin would have come back into the side,” Inverarity said. “I think they’re both looking forward to and we’re looking forward to it. In competitive sport friendly rivalry pushes each other to greater heights. I think they’ll do that in the West Indies and I think they’re both looking forward to working together.”Wade, 24, said he was looking forward to using the tour to learn from Haddin, who made his international debut 11 years ago. He said there was no reason for either man to feel uncomfortable at the prospect of competing for a spot, and he had enjoyed the opportunities he had already had to ask Haddin about keeping at international level.”I think we can definitely work well together,” Wade said. “I know Brad reasonably well. I spoke to him at the AB Medal at length and he gave me a call when I got picked for the one-dayers. He’s been really giving. Hopefully we can both work well together. I can’t see there being any problem. I’m just starting international cricket and he’s been playing a long time. I’m just going to be looking to learn off him. I’d be stupid not to.”At the moment I’m keeping in the one-dayers and the Twenty20s so most of my attention is going towards that. I haven’t really even thought that far down the track [the West Indies Test series]. I’m involved in a pretty big series here at the moment so I haven’t thought too far down the track. Every time I go out on the cricket pitch I’m looking to play my best.”