Sreesanth replaces injured Praveen

Praveen Kumar, the India fast bowler, has been ruled out of the World Cup due to an injured elbow and will be replaced by Sreesanth. The decision comes a day after Praveen underwent a fitness test at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore to gauge whether he had recovered from the injury sustained before the start of the one-day series in South Africa last month.

Praveen, 24 had been sent back immediately from South Africa as a precautionary measure to recuperate at the NCA. The recovery did not go as planned, however, and he consulted Dr Andrew Wallace, a London-based surgeon who has treated many Indian players including Sachin Tendulkar. Praveen has been a regular with the Indian one-day side for the past couple of years and was set to be a certain starter in the World Cup, but his injury healed too slowly to allow him to participate in the global tournament.

Sreesanth has established himself in the Test side but has been on the fringes of the one-day outfit. He has played only 51 one-dayers in more than five years since his debut in 2005, and has a bloated career economy rate of 6.01. But he proved effective in the two ODIs he's played over the past 12 months, bagging seven wickets for 77 runs.

The other fast bowlers in the Indian squad are Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and Munaf Patel.

ICC satisfied by pace of work at Eden

The ICC has given a cautious nod to Eden Gardens' bid to host the remaining three World Cup matches scheduled there, apart from the India-England game, saying that it is "encouraged" by the progress made towards completing the necessary construction work.

"We are pleased with the progress made since January 25, and if that pace of work is maintained, we believe that the stadium will be ready for the games scheduled in March," Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive said.

Eden Gardens is slated to host group-stage matches between South Africa and Ireland on March 15, Ireland and Netherlands on March 18, and Kenya and Zimbabwe on March 20.

The ICC had ruled out holding the February 27 match between Indian and England at Eden Gardens after an inspection on January 27 found several major works incomplete. That match was moved to Bangalore, and it was decided that a later inspection would be held to assess whether Eden Gardens could host the other three matches scheduled to be played there.

While the ICC's new-found confidence means the extensive renovation undertaken on Eden Gardens by the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) might not be a complete loss as far as the tournament is concerned, it may be little consolation for the authorities, who were banking on the India match to draw a sell-out crowd.

Munaf clinches stunning win for India

South Africa made a mess of what should have been a comfortable chase of a below-par total at Wanderers, stumbling in the batting Powerplay and then sinking to a dispiriting defeat in a thrilling finish. In conditions less favourable for batting than what the venue has offered in the past, Graeme Smith had put South Africa on course with a positive innings but his wicket in the 33rd over triggered a collapse that was a product of panic, ill-luck and some needling Indian bowling. Munaf Patel's spell proved decisive as he dislodged Smith and ended the South African innings with two wickets in the 43rd over, when the hosts were just a shot away from victory.

The game was still South Africa's when Munaf began bowling the 43rd over. Four runs were needed with two wickets in hand but what clinched the game for India were two short-of-a-length deliveries that the tailenders, Morne Morkel and Wayne Parnell, who had batted calmly until then, felt were too good to resist. With three needed for victory, Morkel slashed one straight to the substitute fielder Yusuf Pathan at point and, off the last ball of the over, Parnell, keen to finish off the game, cut Munaf to Yuvraj Singh, sparking wild celebrations in the Indian camp while leaving South Africa shell-shocked at their sudden capitulation.

The result had seemed unlikely with Smith's assured presence at the crease. He had been ruthless in his treatment of the bad balls, which the Indians doled out more often than their opponents had earlier in the day, and had eased the pressure despite periodic breakthroughs at the other end. Munaf was punished for consecutive boundaries through mid-off and point, while Zaheer Khan was pulled through midwicket when he pitched short. Initially a little rusty against Harbhajan Singh, Smith stepped out to the offspinner to combat the turn and take the ball off a length. He kept threading the gaps in the outfield to squeeze boundaries off the seamers and went past 6000 runs in ODIs.

Smith's shaky yet productive stand with Colin Ingram, a fluent partnership with JP Duminy and an increasingly threatening association with David Miller had continued the one-way traffic set up by South Africa's bowlers. But at 152 for 4, in the second over of the batting Powerplay, a reversal began.

South Africa's bowlers had exploited the movement off the pitch in restraining India, and Munaf had managed to prise out the wicket of Hashim Amla with a delivery that nipped back in. In the 33rd over, he managed to dart one back in from outside off towards Smith, who played on. In the next over, after he had been flicked to the fine-leg boundary, Zaheer shortened his length and dismissed Miller with an offcutter that the batsman failed to pull and gloved to short fine leg. And when he returned in the 36th over, Zaheer was fortunate to dismiss Johan Botha, who was given out lbw playing back to a good-length delivery, when it seemed the ball had only made contact with the outer half of the bat, not with the pad.

Parnell calmed the nerves of a capacity Wanderers crowd with a square-cut boundary and a promising vigil with Dale Steyn. But Steyn's attempt to risk a single and retain strike for the 39th over resulted in a run-out when Yuvraj barely managed to break the stumps before the ball slipped out of his hands. From 177 for 8, Parnell and Morkel braved a determined spell from Zaheer, managed a streaky boundary off part-time offspinner Suresh Raina and took South Africa to within four runs of a 2-0 lead. Only to throw it all away in the next over from Munaf.

Will India's batsmen bounce back?

The Durban loss wouldn't have shocked too many Indian fans, given India's

well-known batting woes on bouncy pitches. Suresh Raina struggles to handle extra bounce, Rohit Sharma and Yuvraj Singh get into trouble when seam movement is thrown into the mix, MS Dhoni is not in danger of losing his wicket but doesn't score as fluently against such deliveries and India don't have Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir. Virat Kohli has improved on this front - in 2008, Zaheer Khan troubled him with a lot of bouncers in an Irani Cup game - but India are still heavily dependent on Sachin Tendulkar to set the pace. He failed in Durban, and the rest, barring Kohli, couldn't handle the heat.

The track at the Wanderers, the venue of the second ODI, will have bounce but will it do so much as to trouble India? It will be interesting to see how Tendulkar bats. Will he take on the bowling and counter-attack or will he see out the new ball to ease the burden on the middle order? Will India open with Rohit and bring in Yusuf Pathan, who's himself no stranger to trouble against the short ball, in the lower order? This is a big series for several India contenders for the World Cup and it will be interesting to see how the think-tank accommodates them.

And what about India's bowling? Dhoni has already indicated that these are his best bowlers and he will persist with them. Ashish Nehra has had three bad games in a row - he leaked runs in the end overs in the fourth ODI against New Zealand, and struggled with the new ball in the fifth - but his record suggests he will remain one of the key bowlers. It was Munaf Patel who shouldered the burden of bowling in Powerplays and in the final overs in the last game but Nehra was doing that job effectively till recently.

For South Africa, the first ODI was a near-perfect game. In the absence of Jacques Kallis, the team lacks balance and the tail seems long. But AB de Villiers and JP Duminy paced themselves well to control the middle overs. However, concerns remain. Had one of them fallen, would the lower order have the talent and the mental strength to tackle the situation? The next four games will give us a clue.

South Africa packed in four fast bowlers and all of them delivered in the first game. For a brief while, when Dhoni and Kohli were batting, India showed South Africa some of the problems they are likely to face in the World Cup on what would be entirely different tracks in the subcontinent. It also presents another interesting conundrum: is playing and beating India on bouncy tracks in this series the ideal preparation for the World Cup? New Zealand did something similar when they steamrolled India at home just before the 2003 World Cup but it was India who went on to reach the finals then. Or will we see more benign pitches in the rest of the series?

Indian Premier League auction 2011

Gambhir, Yusuf, Uthappa hit jackpot
Shaking off months of controversy, litigation and uncertainty, cricket's biggest, richest and most brassy domestic event, the Indian Premier League, sprang into life again, breaking records and banks on the first day of auction weekend in Bangalore.

From the 88 players auctioned today, 15 new millionaires were created by the ten IPL franchises who will compete in season four, but there was another sorry bunch of 16 players who were left 'unsold' when the auction finally ended at 6 pm.

Minutes after his name was the first to be randomly pulled out from a list of 'marquee players' at 11 am on Saturday morning, Gautam Gambhir earned the highest playing contract in cricket, $2.4m for two years with the Kolkata Knight Riders. With the top seven of the 15 new 'millionaires' being Indian, the day was marked by big spends for the small 48-strong pool of home-grown talent available to the ten teams, who must now compete to create new squads from scratch. Just over a month ago, the number of teams in the auction had been unclear, with Kochi trying to establish an undisputed ownership pattern and Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab fighting the BCCI against their sudden expulsion from the lucrative league.

In Bangalore on Saturday though, with differences quelled for the moment, the auction diverted the IPL spotlight away from legal disputes towards the Bollywood and business-driven spectacle it was meant to be. There were 72 players (30 Indians, 42 foreign players) sold on the first day of the auction for $52.8m. If Gambhir was the highest-earning Indian ever in the league (going for more than Sachin Tendulkar, M S Dhoni and Virender Sehwag's 'retention' salaries), Sri Lankan Mahela Jayawardene became the highest-earning overseas player, signed on for $1.5m by Kochi, the only team left to declare its formal, merchandise-friendly IPL name. They have until April 8 to decide, the IPL beginning just a week after the end of the World Cup.

If there was a single trend through the giant auction player pool, it was this: younger, high-impact men, whether with bat or ball, and genuine multi-tasking all-rounders went for the highest price, even if it was the sole big spend a team could make. The player's marketability was an additional bonus. It is what explains the $1.9m for Irfan Pathan, who has spent a good portion of the domestic season injured and now finds himself out of India's World Cup probables as well.

The short supply of Indians in categories of all kind meant that a younger bunch of Indians suddenly found themselves receiving wages far higher than their more experienced colleagues. The Pune Warriors' $2.1m spend on Robin Uthappa (only the third $2m man), for example, was well ahead of their $1.8m on Yuvraj Singh, who may well eventually be named Pune captain.

South African Twenty20 captain Johan Botha went for almost double the price of his Test and ODI captain Graeme Smith to Rajasthan Royals, the team Smith had played for in the first three years. Along with the franchise owners and coaches present in the auction room, the team's captain-coach Shane Warne spent the day in consultations over the telephone with the franchise.

There were several approaches at work today: Kolkata made their intentions clear early on, first winning all-rounder Yusuf Pathan at the second-highest bid for the day, $2.1m. By lunchtime, they had spent another $1.1m on South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis. As the only team to have three millionaires on their payroll, Kolkata were willing to gamble early on spending more than half of the $9m salary cap on three players.

Taufeeq aggressive after New Zealand make 275

The signs were ominous for New Zealand when Taufeeq Umar blazed away on the second day in Pakistan's response to a disappointing performance with the bat by the hosts. His aggressive approach and boundary-filled start underlined how favourable the track was for batting, and how big an opportunity New Zealand missed after they were put in at the toss.

Unlike the opening day, the second began in bright sunshine and the track had dried up considerably to erase what little assistance was on offer in overcast conditions at the start of the Test. New Zealand's fast bowlers needed an early breakthrough and they got one when Mohammad Hafeez edged a Chris Martin delivery that moved away late and was caught brilliantly by Tim McIntosh at slip, who dived to his right to snap a low chance. But Taufeeq was quick to overcome that loss.

With no swing on offer and minimal movement off the pitch, the seamers didn't help their case by doling out overpitched deliveries on the pads that the Pakistan batsmen duly dispatched. Taufeeq, as early as the third over of the innings, cashed in on such a length from Martin, collecting three fours through midwicket, square leg and mid-on. And when Martin altered his line, he was driven through the off side.

If Martin was guilty of bowling too full, Brent Arnel paid the price for pitching too short and was promptly cut and pulled for boundaries by Taufeeq.

Azhar Ali was more measured and his solidity, that was one of the highlights of Pakistan's performance against South Africa in their previous Test series, was on display; he defended confidently, left deliveries well and showed ability with the wrists through a couple of delightful flicks and drives for boundaries.

Pakistan's position of advantage on the second day was set up by an early conclusion to New Zealand's innings. Tim Southee and Kane Williamson had been involved in a fighting partnership on the opening day, saving New Zealand the embarrassment of being bowled out for under 200 on a pitch full of runs. But their resistance ended this morning when Pakistan's seamers made up for the lack of purchase from the pitch by ruffling the batsmen up with short deliveries.

Umar Gul took little time get things going; he got rid of Southee in the day's first over, as the batsman tried to fend off a bouncer, and Williamson fell to Tanvir Ahmed shortly after reaching his half-century, when he top-edged an attempt to work a short ball into the leg side. Ahmed, who finished with four wickets, dismissed Brent Arnel to leave No.11 Chris Martin stranded on 97 runs in Test cricket.

Gritty Gambhir leads India to 1-1 draw

South Africa 362 (Kallis 161, Amla 59, Sreesanth 5-114) and 341 (Kallis 109*, Boucher 55, Harbhajan 7-120) drew with India 364 (Tendulkar 146, Gambhir 93, Steyn 5-75) and 166 for 3 (Gambhir 64)

An insipid performance from India's bowlers on the fourth day had broken their aspirations of a maiden Test series victory in South Africa but, on the fifth, the batsmen ensured they achieved at least a draw for the first time in the country. In an anticlimactic end to an enthralling contest, Gautam Gambhir was at the forefront of the Indian resistance, Rahul Dravid blocked lots of balls, and South Africa's bowlers toiled 82 overs for three wickets, when they needed ten.

South Africa fell behind early in their pursuit of victory and eventually took only one wicket in each session. The key to their chances lay in how many they dismissed with the new ball, and India won a decisive battle by surviving the first 11 overs without damage. Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel weren't as hostile as they were in the first innings but still bowled aggressively in the morning. Once that threat passed, India's passage was easier. They survived one more flutter of anxiety, soon after Dravid fell late in the second session, when AB de Villiers failed to catch an extremely tough chance off Gambhir. The game was called off with umpteen fielders waiting for catches that never came, and South Africa were still winless in a series at home since Bangladesh's visit in November 2008.

India did not try to win this deciding Test on its final morning - the target of 340 was always out of reach - but because they focused on survival and scored at about two runs an over, Graeme Smith was able to place as many close catchers as he pleased. Steyn got the ball to seam and swing away, though he wasn't as terrific as he was on the third day. Morkel posed the greater threat, targeting the bodies of both openers with balls that jagged into them from short of a length. One screamer from round the wicket rose so steeply that even Gambhir's best efforts to avoid it failed. The ball thudded painfully into his left arm, just below the elbow. It was the same injured arm that kept him off the field during South Africa's second innings and has ruled him out of the ODI series. Gambhir got it treated, and took guard again.