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Australia 375 and 7 for 228 (Haddin 39*) lead South Africa 281 (de Villiers 63, Kallis 63, Johnson 8-61) by 322 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Australia sat in the preferred position with a lead of 322 after the third day, but South Africa monitored every movement as they managed not to lose touch with the world champions. The tourists tailed their opponents at various distances and held them to 7 for 228 at stumps on a pitch that is not stirring nightmares.Despite such a healthy buffer, Australia were unable to streak away in the manner they had hoped after taking an advantage of 94 on first innings in the opening session, when Mitchell Johnson collected his eighth wicket. Rather than batting South Africa out of the contest by setting a victory target of more than 400, a series of poorly timed dismissals left the result of the game open.Needing a strong response after being dismissed for 281, South Africa gained regular ground against an outfit that was struggling with a variety of ailments. Ricky Ponting was in pain from a stomach problem on his 34th birthday while Matthew Hayden and Michael Hussey battled unsuccessfully during unconvincing displays.With the focus intensifying, Michael Clarke and Andrew Symonds fell to shots that even they would admit to being irresponsible. Brett Lee was just unlucky to edge the ball anywhere near AB de Villiers, who flew in the cordon for another magnificent dismissal.Brad Haddin masked the mistakes with 39, which included two straight sixes in an over from Paul Harris, in an unbeaten partnership of 66 in 15.1 overs with Jason Krezja, who eased to 28 and ensured Australia finished on a high. However, it will be up to South Africa’s batsmen over the next two days to determine the cost of the home side’s errors.Graeme Smith’s men knew they were still alive when Ponting and Hussey fell in consecutive overs with the score on 88. While the back-to-back wickets were important for the status of the match, they also showed the tourists would not fold despite a demoralising implosion against Johnson on the second afternoon.Ponting, who took regular time out to stretch, enjoyed the spin of Harris more than the probing pace of Jacques Kallis, but he got too aggressive and was caught behind trying to force off the back foot on 32. Hussey (8) was the fourth to exit when he lost his off stump, under-edging an attempted pull off Makhaya Ntini, an event which continued Australia’s tendency in this match to lose wickets in groups at crucial times.

A subdued stand of 60 between Clarke and Symonds, who were tied down by tight bowling and constrictive fields, ended when Clarke flashed outside off stump to Dale Steyn and Symonds also suffered from a lack of control. A ball after drinks in the third session he went down to loft Harris over mid-on, but found Smith with a shot that did not have his full force. It was his second terminal choice to Harris in the game and he muttered off with 37.Harris performed an important role, suffocating the batsmen during a return of 2 for 64 from 23 overs, and Kallis was even tighter, matching Harris’ haul and going at 1.72 per over. Steyn would return for short blasts during the day and was also successful twice.While the visitors have the much tougher assignment, it was a shame for Johnson that the teams were brought closer together. Johnson captured the eighth-best figures by an Australian to put his side in the dominant position.Johnson earned his only breakthrough of the third day with a bouncer to Steyn, who ducked but didn’t drop his hands and the ball hit his glove on the way to Haddin. Haddin was about a metre away from giving Johnson a ninth victim when Mark Boucher top-edged a pull and it fell between the diving wicketkeeper and Lee, who was running around from fine-leg. Instead of the best haul by an Australian in an innings, Johnson had to settle for a spot on a list including Glenn McGrath, Bob Massie and Shane Warne.South Africa’s tail was a nuisance for the home team with Boucher (24) adding 25 for the final wicket. Peter Siddle got the final breakthrough, his first in Australia, when Boucher cut to Simon Katich, who then sprinted off the field to prepare for his innings.Katich was much more lively in his 37 than his struggling partner Hayden, who was fortunate to escape an lbw appeal from Steyn. After raising his bat in mock celebration at scoring his first run from his 20th ball, Hayden was the victim, balancing the previous mistake, when Steyn’s delivery hit his pad and rebounded to the bowler. Aleem Dar ruled it a caught-and-bowled and will do well to make a bigger error in the next year.Hayden left with more scrutiny on his position after a double failure of 12 and 4 that took his Australian-season tally to 48 in three Tests. The bowlers will also have a fierce examination as the match concludes.

Karnataka 277 for 6 (Uthappa 65, Raghu 64, Chawla 2-59, Praveen 2-61) v Uttar Pradesh
Scorecard

One hundred and thirteen: That was the tangible cost of the chances Uttar Pradesh missed on a day in which they failed to hold on to three of the seven catches that came theirway. But while UP fielders were intent on letting Karnataka run away with the game, the hosts were in benevolent mood too: some unnecessary shots let UP back in, two of them by the openers who were both dropped during their pieces. Whereupon UP pulled the plug on the scoring, and slowly made their way back to the end the first day on even terms, despite a half-century from the third beneficiary, C Raghu.On a batting beauty, UP would have expected better from their star fielding line-up having put Karnataka in. They were perhaps looking for an outright win, which would allow them to breathe easy during the next round when they won’t be playing. Their progress this season, however, will depend on other results in Group B.RP Singh and Bhuvneshwar Kumar opened the bowling, but did not get much help from the pitch. The odd delivery swung – especially one from RP which prompted a loud lbw appeal against Robin Uthappa – but by and large it was a comfortable opening spell for the batsmen.CP Gautam, on debut replacing KB Pawan who failed recover from his shoulder injury, glanced the day’s first boundary in the second over. Uthappa kept RP interested, playing and missing twice in the fifth over. Those two breaks in concentration, however, were followed by a flicked boundary as Karnataka reached 44 without loss.Praveen Kumar’s introduction paid off almost immediately as Gautam slashed at a wide one, edging it hard and high to gully, where Shivakant Shukla let the ball go through his hands. In Praveen’s next over, Uthappa played at a wide delivery in the same direction, and Shukla managed to get his hands to this one, before again spilling it. Their respective scores were 18 and 29 then.Uthappa immediately shifted a gear and went on the aggressive. There was the odd loose shot, but also fluent flicks and hard drives through cover. Two overs from RP, back for a second spell, neatly summed up the hit-and-miss nature of Uthappa’s innings. The batsman first went for a big drive, missing it completely, but managed to flick the next ball through midwicket. In the next over he went an aerial, though ended up hoicking it just over mid-off. Two balls later he steered through third man to bring up his half-century, off 60 balls with 10 boundaries.Just when all was going well for Karnataka, however, Gautam handed UP another chance, similar to the one he had offered before. The bowler was Praveen, the shot similar, but the gully fielder had changed. Tanmay Srivastava held on to the sharp low offering, the total on 98 in only the 21st over. Four balls later, Uthappa tried one shot too many, and edged a short and wide delivery from RP to bring two new batsmen at the crease. Uthappa’s 65 came off 69 deliveries, 52 of them in boundaries.Praveen and RP then seized the opening, and bowled with heart and accuracy. Deepak Chougule and Raghu were examined thoroughly, with bouncers, cutters, and the little swing the two bowlers could muster. The next eight overs featured plays and misses, hits on the body, an edge short of slips and one through them, and only five runs. The pressure told as Raghu, in the first over of Bhuvneshwar’s new spell, edged only for Mohammad Kaif to spill a low chance at first slip. Raghu was yet to open his account.Finally, off the 24th ball he faced, he got off the mark and slowly but surely, together with Chougule, got his side out of strife. Just before the partnership could really threaten, Choughule swept all over a Piyush Chawla delivery, and was out lbw.Karnataka promoted Thilak Naidu ahead of Manish Pandey, and from 135 for 3, Raghu and Naidu made UP work really hard through the afternoon. While Naidu played a subdued knock, choosing to leave balls outside off stump, Raghu looked solid after the early reprieve, hitting some wonderful boundaries.To counter the hint of reverse from Bhuvneshwar, Raghu repeatedly walked down the track, playing and missing at a couple just before tea, eventually reaching a well-made half-century off 122 balls. However, against the run of play, Naidu hit Praveen Gupta straight to Suresh Raina at cover, as UP went in to the tea break confident.Just after tea, Raghu followed Naidu into the pavilion, falling lbw to Chawla. After a 78-run partnership two wickets had fallen for three runs, and for the second time in the day UP threatened to storm back into the match, but Manish Pandey made a Raghu-like start, thwarting another UP comeback and restoring balance to the match. He got his first run off the 22nd ball he faced, accelerated thereupon, using his half-sweep-half-push to good effect.Minutes before stumps, the final balancing act of the day was enacted with Pandey chasing a wide delivery from Praveen. While the Karnataka batsmen didn’t really look the gift horse in its mouth, they weren’t entirely the thankless hosts either.

Improvisation of the day
Simon Katich had been smothered by India’s 8-1 field on the third day and it wasn’t long before Mahendra Singh Dhoni placed a similar field this morning. Katich got beaten several times outside off stump and eventually tried to break free by moving a long way across his stumps and swinging a fuller delivery from Ishant Sharma from outside off towards the deep square leg boundary. It was the sort of innovation that was absent from his innings on Saturday. However, his attempt to pull Ishant once again from wide outside off stump resulted in a top edge that landed in Dhoni’s hands.Edgy start to the day
Ricky Ponting was criticised severely for bowling his part-time bowlers in order to make up the over-rate last evening and today, his chance to play a significant innings in the run-chase nearly ended off his first ball. He got squared up by Zaheer Khan and the edge fell just short of Rahul Dravid. Zaheer wasn’t pleased and told Dravid “I told you to stand a bit forward” in Hindi.Potentially terrific chance of the day
Matthew Hayden pulled out the reverse sweep against Harbhajan and middled the ball but hit it a little fine. The ball flew at speed towards Dravid at first slip and he did well to react quickly enough to get both hands to the ball. On a better day, or in a better series, the catch might have stuck but Dravid’s awful form continued and the ball simply bounced out.Direct hit of the day
Amit Mishra inspires little confidence in the field. He’s relatively slow and hasn’t had the safest of hands in this series. That’s probably why Ponting pushed the ball towards him at mid-off and took his chances. Mishra, though, anticipated the run and moved swiftly towards the ball. He swooped on the ball, picked it up with one hand and released it quickly. The throw clipped the stumps, dislodging one bail, with Ponting a foot short.Eventful first over of the day
Harbhajan Singh doesn’t go round the wicket to the left-handers very often but today he started his spell by going round to Hayden in order to use the rough outside the left-hander’s off stump. The first ball, however, was short and Hayden drilled it through cover for four. The next nearly brought Harbhajan a wicket: Hayden, on 34, edged an attempted cut but Dhoni floored the regulation catch. Dhoni kicked the ground, Dravid held his head. The final ball of the over hit one of those rough patches and took off, Hayden let it go and the ball nearly smacked Dhoni on the helmet.

Tardy team of the day
Australia were slow with their overs on day four and at one stage they were nearly ten overs behind. During the first session on the final day, India were worse. There were elaborate field changes and long chats between captain and bowler ever or often. India managed to bowl only 21.3 overs before lunch when they should have completed 30.Counterattack of the day
Hayden had begun to threaten India after he was let off twice and Dhoni packed the leg-side boundary with fielders and instructed his spinners to land the ball outside leg stump. Hayden couldn’t be bothered: he lofted Harbhajan between the men at long on and deep midwicket and then bisected the gap between deep midwicket and long leg. When Sehwag floated a ball outside leg, Hayden charged and the men at deep midwicket and long on watched as the ball flew over the boundary.Bowling change of the day
Hussey and Hayden were scoring at over four an over with ease during their partnership. The fast bowlers had failed to break the partnership and Hayden, in particular, went after Harbhajan and Sehwag. Dhoni finally turned to Mishra, whom he had used extremely late in the first innings as well. In his first over, Mishra sent down a topspinner to Hussey, the ball landed on a rough patch outside off stump and climbed sharply on Hussey. It took the outside edge and bobbed up to Dravid who took the catch this time.

The IPL has taken some significant steps to protect the interests of its eight franchises, including the addition of a performance clause to its player contracts that will see players lose 20% of their match fee – on a match-by-match basis – if they don’t find a place in the playing XI from the next season. However, this clause will be applicable only to new contracts that will be signed from now on.This was one of the key developments at a meeting, involving franchise representatives and IPL officials, which ended in Bangkok on Sunday. The meeting also resolved to hike the players’ purchase cap from US$5 million to $7 million – this cap will not be applicable to the money that will be spent during a one-month trading window starting December 15 for existing players.”This is a very significant development for the franchises,” sources said. “This means that trading can be done for existing players with absolutely no budgetary limits.”The IPL, meanwhile, announced in a press release that it will hold its next players’ auction in Mumbai on February 6. It had earlier been tentatively scheduled for January 29. The IPL also confirmed that the maximum number of foreign players in each squad has been increased from 8 to 10, though those in the playing XI will stay at four.The meeting agreed to scrap the system of flying in players as temporary replacements, an allowance that saw cricketers like Dwayne Bravo, the West Indian allrounder, make a fleeting appearance in the first season early this year. But in a concession to the teams that had picked such players last time, the press release said that “all teams that had temporary replacements will have the first right to pick those players”.”The extra $2 million to purchase players is essentially for the new auction,” sources said. “This will go a long way in levelling the playing field, especially with many of us expecting the English players to be available. The 10-player cap has also brought clarity to the field because there was an original limit of eight and then it was stretched to nine.”According to the sources, franchise can now offload players during the trading window – with the player’s consent – but they will have to bear the difference to the player in case he is sold for less than his current fee. “On the other hand, if a player goes at an increased price, the difference will be shared by the selling franchise and the player,” they said. The details of this arrangement are not known yet.Franchises have also been assured more visibility on the ground, in terms of in-stadia visibility during matches, “while not infringing on the rights of the central sponsors”.The performance clause, incidentally, is also open to existing players but only if they sign new contracts. “It is doubtful how many of the existing players will agree to sign a new contract,” the sources said. “But the idea behind the move is clear. It is a step for the future and will ensure that the money a franchise pays to a player is linked purely to performance, and nothing else.” As per the previous arrangement, a player only needed to be “fit and available for selection” to be entitled to his full fee.The meeting also heard views from various service providers involved with the first season of IPL to “ensure a better experience allround next time”. “But on the whole the Bangkok meeting was held in an excellent, open atmosphere and it has left the franchises satisfied with the clarity achieved,” the sources said. The 2009 IPL season has been tentatively scheduled to start from April 10.

Scorecard

A lower-order rearguard action from Chris Swan and Chris Hartley rescued Queensland, who reached 236 on the opening day of the Sheffield Shield season against Tasmania. On a rain-affected day at the Gabba, the Bulls were shaking at 8 for 91 before being saved by a ninth-wicket stand of 135 between the pair. Tasmania didn’t quite end the day as they would have liked, losing Michael Dighton before bad light ended play.The match was particularly important for Andrew Symonds, returning to first-class cricket after being sidelined from national duty due to disciplinary reasons. His dismissal – off a loose drive to gully – was part of a forgettable morning for Queensland when they lost four wickets in the first half an hour. Overnight rain had spruced up the conditions for seam bowling and it was a good toss to win for Daniel Marsh, the Tasmania captain.The experiment of sending James Hopes as an opener failed as he lost his off stump to Ben Hilfenhaus in the second over of the match. Brett Geeves struck with the wickets of Ryan Broad and Martin Love and soon after, Queensland had lost half their side at 39. Greg Moller and Ashley Noffke knuckled down with a stand of 45 but Tasmania reinforced their grip on the game when they nabbed three wickets for the addition of just seven runs.Swan joined Hartley at the fall of the eighth wicket and took control of the stand. He was particularly harsh on Geeves and brought up his half-century with successive pulls off Hilfenhaus. He was, however, lucky to be let off before getting off the mark, when George Bailey spilled a catch at floating slip.Hartley also helped himself to a half-century, but it took a sharp catch at square leg by Rhett Lockyear to finally end the stand. Tim Macdonald, the seamer, accounted for three lower-order men and finished with a career-best 4 for 42. Swan remained unbeaten on 76 – more than he had previously scored in his entire first-class career – and his 84-ball knock included 13 fours.

Not that anyone was really taking much notice, but the last rites of the Second Division were being played out and, with the exception of Leicester, it was proving to be a good end to the season for the batsmen.At Grace Road, Leicestershire finished on a high with an eight-wicket defeat of Derbyshire in three days. The pitch throughout was substandard, with uneven bounce, but even so that does not explain how Derbyshire slumped from 88 for 0 to 203 all out in their second innings. The home-grown 19-year-old Sam Clift took 4 for 42 and not-quite-so-home-grown Garnett Kruger 3 for 45 to leave Leicestershire with a target of 190. Again an Anglo-South African were to the fore as Matthew Boyce (68) and Boeta Dipenaar (84*) added 145 for the second wicket to seal the win in the extra half hour.Warwickshire, who wrapped up the title yesterday, had 81 from Rikki Clarke to thank from bailing them out of the pickle they found themselves in before lunch against Glamorgan at Edgbaston when they slid to 105 for 6. Presumably Clarke, who only arrived at Edgbaston last month after a wretched semi-season at Derbyshire, missed the celebrations last night, and until he was joined by Neil Carter (51) the innings looked set to subside. The pair added 112 for the seventh wicket, and that enable Warwickshire to set a target of 403. But Glamorgan, who were poor first time round, looked up for the challenge and reached 111 for 1 by the close.Runs continued to flow at Wantage Road where Middlesex bowled Northamptonshire out for 256, a lead of 289, but opted to bat again rather than enforce the follow-on. The evergreen Shaun Udal took 5 for 69, his best return of the summer, and then Andrew Strauss and Billy Godleman cracked fifties as Middlesex rattled up 171 for 2 in 34 overs, setting the hosts a target of 461. They lost Stephen Peter to an Owais Shah slip catch in the third over, but eased to 84 for 1 by the close, Rob White finishing unbeaten on 55.It looks as if Gloucestershire will finish the season with another defeat after they were forced to follow-on by Essex at Bristol. Resuming on 72 for 3, only William Porterfield (69) showed enough fight, and his dismissal triggered a collapse in which the last five wickets fell for 30. Following on 305 behind, they lost Porterfield and Hamish Marshall within three overs to leave them 3 for 2, but Kadeer Ali (92*) and Christopher Taylor (58*) put on an unbeaten 129 for the fourth wicket to at least take the game into a final day. It will take a miracle, however, if Gloucestershire are to record their first win of a dismal campaign.

The crisp, cream clothing made way for dazzling blue, but the script read much the same. Watching India clearly weighed down by the finger freak waiting in the wings, unsure about how to tackle tidy medium-pace, anxious about what could be unleashed at any moment, it was hard not to get a sense of déjà vu. The Test specialists were gone, but the one-day recruits suffered a similar fate.India’s latest defeat against Sri Lanka wasn’t all about Ajantha Mendis, though at the rate he is picking up awards and cheques, he’s certain to be a richer man and teach Arun Lal, the post-match emcee all tour, a fair amount of Sinhalese. Mendis played a key role, but India were severely dented after Sri Lanka’s new-ball duo nipped out three early wickets.That pair took much of the pressure off Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan. Chaminda Vaas breached Gautam Gambhir’s defence with the second ball of the match and Nuwan Kulasekera bowled very well, complementing his partner, to take two wickets. After five overs India were 9 for 1; after ten 29 for 2; after 15, 42 for 3; after the Powerplays they were reeling at 73 for 4. Therein lies the command that Sri Lanka took over the opposition. Vaas and Kulasekera choked the top order and Thilan Thushara, bowling tidy left-arm seam, maintained the pressure. It was a clinical example of attacking through partnerships.More importantly, it was the perfect setting for Mendis to come in for the last over of the Powerplays. India were unsettled by their early losses and apprehensive about Mendis’ arrival. They were unsure about how to handle the situation, and it proved detrimental.When Mendis did arrive, India’s batsmen looked no closer to deciphering him. His first strike hurt so deep that India failed to recover. Yuvraj Singh was beaten first ball by a slider, survived an extremely tight lbw shout, tried to dictate terms with a six over long-on, and was then utterly befuddled by a quicker one that skidded on. Too far forward, Yuvraj was left looking silly. India’s most experienced player had fallen for the dangling carrot, and the reverberations were loud.Thereon it was much the same as in the Tests. Mendis left the rest to fumble about in the dark. Mahendra Singh Dhoni fidgeted and fussed about his crease, playing and missing until he was put out of his misery by an outside-edge that flew to slip. Runs dried up. The heat turned up. After the Asia Cup, Dhoni said Mendis just couldn’t be read at all; nothing has changed.

Again bowling accurately and lethally, Mendis finished with 3 for 21 off nine overs, helping reduce India to 87 for 7 after which he was taken out of the attack. All Murali had to do was twirl his wrist and gobble up the lower order, even if his last over went for 14. The problem with India’s approach against Mendis was that everyone wanted to build, nobody wanted to do maintenance.”Creativity is not like a freight train going down the tracks,” wrote Bob Dylan in his autobiography, . “It’s something that has to be caressed and treated with a great deal of respect. If your mind is intellectually in the way, it will stop you. You’ve got to programme your brain not to think too much.”Flip that around and you understand India’s predicament against Mendis. They’ve been bamboozled, nay awed, by Mendis’ bag of tricks since he destroyed them in Karachi. Mendis is special, no doubt about it. India’s players have bounced between analysing footage, hoping that his aura may wear off and stressing on reading him off the pitch. What they need to understand is that for the time being Mendis is beyond understanding. Hard as it may sound, they need to take him out of the equation, stop worrying about him.Virender Sehwag didn’t think too much about Mendis in Galle and finished the match with 251 runs. There’s a possibility he may be out of the whole series, and that’s a massive worry, for in a sense India lost this match before Dhoni went out for the toss. They lost this match some time during training yesterday when Sehwag injured himself. Sehwag was India’s highest scorer in the Test series, handling Mendis with aplomb during his double hundred in Galle, and their best bet at providing a solid start.Dhoni spoke of the added responsibility on Sehwag to pass on advice to India’s one-day recruits. In terms of his experience against Sri Lanka’s spinners and his ability to provide starts, an integral asset in cricket, Sehwag’s loss was brutal. In his last ODI he hammered an exhilarating 60 from just 35 balls, helping India storm to 76 from just nine overs.Without their best player, India’s indecision crept in from the onset. The openers may have thought attacking Sri Lanka’s medium-pacers was the best option given their inefficiency in the Tests. That didn’t work, and they had no answer to Mendis.Even if they do a half-baked job of something, India’s batsmen will find themselves one-eyed men in the kingdom of the blind. But at the moment they remain indecisive about picking one approach; it’s a toss-up between throwing in the towel or trying to force the pace against spin. India need to find a way to rotate singles, as well as score runs.”Its important to learn,” said Dhoni, “because everyone makes mistakes. Unless you learn from those your own, your team’s graph won’t go up.”There’s only a day’s gap for the second match. India’s time starts now.

With a restrained knock of 58 not out, Dinesh Karthik made a strong case to be included in the first Test against Sri Lanka next week. His innings helped India recover from a shaky 80 for 5 to 196 for 8 at stumps on the second day of their three-day practice match against a Sri Lanka Board XI.In pulling India out from an embarrassing position, he was assisted by Sachin Tendulkar, with the pair putting on a 62-run sixth-wicket partnership. “It’s a great feeling batting with Sachin in the middle,” Karthik said at the end of the day. “It doesn’t get better than playing with the best batsman in the world.”It is always helpful if you start the innings with a player like Sachin. He gives you confidence and tells you how to pace your innings,” Karthik said. “He was telling me to take my time and play. It was not a wicket where you can come and start playing shots. I was trying to do that.”Karthik, 23, is fighting for a place in the Test team with Parthiv Patel, and knows the importance of making the most of his chances. “It’s a great opportunity for me to establish myself in the Test side if I can get some runs. But most important I know it’s one of the few opportunities which I’ll get,” he said. “I was a little surprised when I was selected and now I am trying to make the best use of it.”The emergence of Mahendra Singh Dhoni has reduced Karthik’s chances of making the Test side as a wicketkeeper – in nearly three years, he has played only two Tests as a keeper. “When you play for India there is always pressure, more so for wicketkeepers because Dhoni has set such high standards that to get into the team itself is a great thing,” he said. “I know I can get into the team as a batsman so it’s important that I get a lot of runs so that I am there in the thick of things.”

Darren Bicknell, the former Surrey and Nottinghamshire batsman, will captain MCC on a four-match, four-day tour of Denmark next week, their first trip to the country since 2002.Bicknell made 134 not out for MCC against Scotland at Lord’s in April, the match in which the new pink ball was trialled, but this will be his first tour as captain. Joining him in the squad will be the MCC Young Cricketers coach, Mark Wright, and Liam O’Driscoll, representing MCC Universities.The tour will commence on Monday, July 7, with a 50-over fixture against Denmark Under-19s. Two more 50-over games will follow against the full Denmark side on Wednesday and Thursday, with a Twenty20 match against a Copenhagen Select XI slotting in on Tuesday afternoon, after a coaching session for the Denmark Under-13, 15 and 17 teams.”Denmark are familiar opponents for us and a nation who have been consistently improving for a number of years,” said MCC’s head of cricket, John Stephenson. “Hopefully by sending a strong MCC side we will help to further develop the game in Denmark and give their emerging players the advanced coaching and opposition which will help their game.” The club will leave behind a grant of $2500 and the ICC will donate $1250 to develop facilities and coaching programmes in Denmark.Denmark compete in the top tier of the ICC Europe development programme, playing frequent matches against Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands. Excluding England, there are 30 European member countries of the ICC in total. MCC are likely to come up against two of their former Young Cricketers during the tour, with the offspinning allrounder, Michael Pedersen, and Derbyshire’s wicketkeeper-batsman, Freddie Klokker, both expected to play.

Records seem easiest for the people who are the least concerned about them as thoughts of milestones don’t sit annoyingly and teasingly in their minds. Years ago it seemed unbelievable that Ricky Ponting didn’t know how highly history rated some of his deeds.Whenever he walked in after play to discuss his latest hundred and was told of the great name he had just passed for runs or centuries, he’d look straight back and say: “I’ve never been one for stats.” Usually he didn’t know about the mark until one of the support staff had told him. It happened so often it had to be true. A man who has been ribbed by his team-mates for reading the Sydney grade cricket scores never knew when he was about to pass Waugh, Gavaskar or Bradman.At the start of his career Steve Waugh was playing under the coach Bob Simpson, who would alert the players to any new milestones they had achieved. Under Waugh’s captaincy history became a strong influence, pushing the team to smash records instead of breaking them. During the reign Australia achieved 16 wins in a row, Matthew Hayden raised a then-best 380 and Waugh finished his career in second on the list of Test run-makers with 10,927.The sense of numerical occasion didn’t pass to Ponting. Calculations don’t bother him as much as winning or spending a long time in the game. And in cricket there is always someone who is better – or more compulsive – with statistics. So the only reason Ponting knew he needed 61 runs in Antigua to reach what was once the fairytale of batting achievements was because one of the extended squad members had mentioned it.When Ponting started his Test career only Allan Border and Sunil Gavaskar had reached five figures and 10,000 carried a magical quality. It was such a big deal to Border that in the same year he got there, with a single to mid-on off Carl Hooper at the SCG, he released his Beyond Ten Thousand autobiography.Batsmen didn’t get that far by mistake or by merely being good. Longevity was essential – Border and Gavaskar both played for 16 years – but so was regular, heavy run-scoring. Averaging more than 50 was a must. Ponting has done both in becoming the seventh player to the number.He began with 96 on debut in Perth in 1995 and it took 13 years and another 117 matches to join the group. A two to cover from Ramnaresh Sarwan’s occasional legspin lifted him out of the 9000s, but there was little fanfare. While Ponting said at stumps it was a nice milestone, he is happy letting everybody else make the fuss.Ponting is more proud of the many years he has spent in the national side, but in the quiet of his room the size of numbers must make him smile. In his public world, and in a team sense, Simon Katich’s unbeaten 113 was more important than the captain’s 65 on the opening day. Without Matthew Hayden, Australia needed a solid contribution and Katich provided it, allowing Ponting to leave for the hotel pleased with the side’s position.Despite Katich working impressively on his first century since 2005, his innings will be overlooked by those outside the squad. Ponting, the newest 10,000 man, is now standing at an altitude reached only by the super elite.