MONDAY, AUGUST 11, 2014 SPORTS Wretched form exposes India’s batting woes MUMBAI: Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli’s and Manchester, last month’s stirring win at Lord’s DOWNHEARTED DHONI ing porous while England paceman James wretched form in England has again exposed India’s appears to stand out as a flash in the pan. India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni did not Anderson has found a walking wicket in Kohli, who failure to fill the huge void left in the batting line-up Pujara, who bats at the number three spot left mince his words in finding where to lay the blame has kept the slip cordon constantly interested with when Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar retired. vacant by Dravid, had been impressive with his for one-sided defeats in the last two tests as regular edges flying towards them. Dravid, India’s formidable number three bats- technique and temperament when India play at England stormed 2-1 ahead with the final match to But Dhoni, who himself has looked slack in his man, ended his career in January 2012 after scoring home and also during the 1-0 series loss in South come at The Oval next week. captaincy and with the gloves behind the stumps, 13,288 runs in 164 tests, with many of those coming Africa last year. The flamboyant Kohli, who took “What is important is to put runs on the board,” sounded less than convincing as he grasped for in tricky overseas conditions. Tendulkar’s number four position, had been marked Dhoni said after the innings defeat at Old Trafford excuses to defend his failing star batsmen. Run-machine Tendulkar bid farewell last out as India’s next great batsman - a reputation on Saturday. “To some extent, Lord’s and the per- “Consistently we are exposing Pujara in the sec- November after a career spanning 24 years, during underlined by his consistency in the last two years formance of the eight, nine, 10 and 11 so far in the ond, third or fourth over and he might feel that he is which he played 200 tests for India and scored close at home and on the tours of South Africa and New series camouflaged the question of the top order better off opening the batting,” Dhoni said, target- to 16,000 runs in the longest format. Zealand. However, their collective failures against not performing. ing his top two batsmen for offering little or no pro- The lack of a succession plan was bemoaned as the moving ball in England has given rise to doubts “But when you are playing with five bowlers, the tection against the new ball. the ageing batsmen reached the twilight of their about their class and ability and if they are the fifth bowler actually has scored more runs for us. “Our openers haven’t given us good enough careers during a horrid spell for the team away from answer to India’s search for batting solidity in the That actually puts pressure on, whatever the reason start and that has put a lot of pressure on Pujara home, when they lost eight tests in a row in absence of their retired heroes. may be. “Maybe a few of the batsmen are having a coming in at number three, who has never felt set- England and Australia. After batting eight times each in the first four lean period at the same time. But overall, we will tled. “Virat has had a lovely spell for two-and-a-half India had not won a test match outside the tests, Pujara has an average of 25.87 with one half have to put more runs on the board so that the years and this is something that will happen in country since 2011 when they set foot on English century while Kohli has dismal figures of a 13.50 bowlers can get the opposition out.” international cricket. But I am not really worried as soil and after the thumping losses in Southampton average with a highest score of just 39. Pujara’s solid defence has suddenly started look- he is middling the ball well.” — Reuters Slow S Africa creep up on Zimbabwe HARARE: Zimbabwe stifled South Africa’s on the stumps. De Villiers’ demise was lazy in usually fluent top six but the world’s top- the end as if the boredom of it all overcame ranked test side remained in control by reach- him as he tried to hit a ball from off-spinner ing 201 for four, 55 runs behind, at the close John Nyumbu over cover, but succeeded only on the second day of the one-off test at in picking out Sibanda. Harare Sports Club yesterday. Usually so fluent and difficult to contain, The day yielded just 209 runs in the 90 De Villiers’ torturous seven came from 34 balls. overs on a wicket that is becoming increas- Opener Dean Elgar fought his way to 61 from ingly difficult to bat on as Zimbabwe posted 146 balls before he was superbly caught flash- 256 in the morning session. Faf du Plessis (69) ing at a wide delivery by wicketkeeper and Quinton de Kock (27) will resume on day Richmond Mutumbami off the bowling of three. In the hour after tea South Africa scored Donald Tiripano, handing the debutant seam- 11 runs for the loss of Hashim Amla and AB de er his maiden test wicket. Villiers as the home sided packed the offside Under-pressure opener Alviro Petersen field and bowled wide of off-stump, daring (32), who averages 21 in his last 10 test the South African batsmen to blast their way innings, was also caught by Mutumbami - at through the ring of men. the second attempt - after he attempted to Amla (four) tried, but succeeded only in paddle a leg-side delivery from Nyumbu. In picking out Vusi Sibanda at cover off the the morning session, Dale Steyn completed bowling of seamer Tendai Chatara. It was the his 24th five-wicket haul in tests to end the perfect execution of home captain Brendan Zimbabwe innings. Steyn finished with five Taylor’s plan, hatched no doubt given his lim- for 46 from 22.4 overs to take his tally of test ited bowling options. wickets to 380, three short of Ian Botham in That subdued the attacking instincts of Du 13th place on the all-time list. Off-spinner Plessis and De Villiers, who left anything wide Dane Piedt recorded figures of four for 90 in and what runs came were from rare deliveries his first test. — Reuters SCOREBOARD HARARE: Scoreboard at the close of play on the second day of the one-off Test between Zimbabwe and South Africa at Harare Sports Club yesterday: Zimbabwe first innings Bowling: Steyn 22.4-11-46-5, Philander V. Sibanda c Petersen b Steyn 0 18-5-51-1, Morkel 19-3-39-0, Piedt 24-1- H. Masakadza b Piedt 45 90-4, Duminy 9-0-26-0 M. Vermeulen lbw b Piedt 14 GALLE: Sri Lankan cricket team captain Angelo Mathews celebrates after winning the opening Test match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan. — AFP B. Taylor c Duminy b Piedt 93 South Africa first innings R. Chakabva c Amla b Piedt 0 D. Elgar c Mutumbami b Tiripano 61 S. Williams c de Kock b Steyn 24 A. Petersen c Mutumbami b Nyumbu 32 R. Mutumbami lbw b Steyn 21 F. du Plessis not out 69 Sri Lanka defeat rain, T. Panyangara c de Kock b Philander 12 H. Amla c Sibanda b Chatara 4 D. Tiripano not out 15 A. de Villiers c Sibanda b Nyumbu 7 T. Chatara c de Kock b Steyn 22 Q. de Kock not out 27 J. Nyumbu c de Kock b Steyn 2 Extras (1nb) 1 Extras (4lb, 2wd, 2nb) 8 Total (4 wkts, 84 overs, 334 mins) 201 Pakistan in first Test Total (all out, 92.4 overs, 403 mins) 256 To bat: JP Duminy, Vernon Philander, Dale Fall of wickets: 1-0 (Sibanda), 2-33 Steyn, Dane Piedt, Morne Morkel. GALLE: Retiring Mahela Jayawardene took on the (Vermeulen), 3-90 (Masakadza), 4-90 Fall of wicket: 1-57 (Petersen), 2-132 unusual role of opening batsman to hand Sri Lanka (Chakabva), 5-120 (Williams), 6-179 (Elgar), 3-146 (Amla), 4-157 (de Villiers). a thrilling seven-wicket victory on the final day of SCOREBOARD (Mutumbami), 7-204 (Panyangara), 8-220 Bowling: Panyangara 16-7-18-0, Tiripano the first Test against Pakistan in Galle yesterday. (Taylor), 9-246 (Chatara), 10-256 15-4-42-1, Nyumbu 24-4-71-2, Chatara The hosts, needing 99 to win in a minimum of 21 GALLE, Sri Lanka: Final scoreboard of the first Test between Pakistan and Sri Lanka in Galle yes- (Nyumbu). 15-9-17-1, Williams 14-1-53-0. overs, beat fading light and approaching rain to terday: cruise home in the 17th over in front of some 5,000 jubilant home fans. Pakistan 1st innings: 451 (Younis Khan 177, Asad Fall of wickets: 1-3 (Manzoor), 2-11 (Ajmal), 3-39 Jayawardene, who is due to retire from Test crick- Shafiq 75, Sarfraz Ahmed 55, Abdur Rehman 50, (Shehzad), 4-55 (Younis), 5-111 (Ali), 6-111 (Misbah), et after the two-match series, scored 26 before Dilruwan Perera 5-137, Rangana Herath 3-116) 7-133 (Shafiq), 8-153 (Rehman), 9-178 (Talha), 10- Kumar Sangakkara (21) and skipper Angelo Sri Lanka 1st innings: 533-9 declared (K. Silva 64, 180 (Junaid). Mathews (25 not out) chipped in lower down the K.