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Sachin Tendulkar admitted that he hadn’t looked at the scoreboard when he was in the nineties, not wanting to think of missing out on a hundred yet again. Tendulkar endured seven scores in the nineties in the last year and said he would savour this hundred as a special one.”It was a little different this time because in 2007 I missed a lot of hundreds and I didn’t want that to continue,” he said referring to his string of dismissals in the nineties, including three on 99. “I wanted to move on and the beginning of the new year is extremely important. It came at the right time so I am happy about that.”I didn’t look at the scoreboard, to be honest. I was just sharing my opinion with Harbhajan about how to go on with the innings and build our partnership and continue and that was the prime focus. That kept my mind pre-occupied with a lot of things.”Harbhajan joined Tendulkar after a mini-collapse, when India lost four wickets for 52 runs in 14.5 overs. “I had to re-think the strategy as we lost four wickets in that period. We had to plan little different. One big partnership was important.”The striking feature of this innings was Tendulkar’s decision to trust the tailenders, even if it was No. 11 Ishant Sharma, who’s previous 13 first-class innings had produced just 15 runs. “It was our strategy,” he said. “For me there was just one fielder at gully saving one otherwise all were virtually on the boundary line or half-way down. To try something stupid and get out would have been unwise.”I thought if runs had come earlier with Harbhajan and RP Singh, the same strategy should be applied. Ishant scored some important 23-24 runs. What eventually matters is the partnership and not who takes the initiative. We had these calculations going our way.”Tendulkar’s innings was greeted with such a tremendous response that it often appeared he was the home batsman. “I am very happy with the way the crowd have supported us. Australians are known for that, they enjoy good cricket, they enjoy competitive cricket and it makes the players feel it’s worthwhile to have the spectators to enjoy the game in the right spirit. They know and understand the game very well. It was truly a pleasure to be out there in the middle and get runs in front of the Australian crowd.”Was the SCG, where he now averages 326, his favourite ground? “It is one of my favourite grounds,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed batting here and it has truly been a memorable one. Sometimes you walk on the field and it gives you good feelings. It is one of those grounds.”

Shivnarine Chanderpaul has insisted he has not retired from domestic cricket and intends to resume playing for Guyana within a couple of weeks.In an episode that sheds light on the sometimes toxic relationship between the West Indies Cricket Board and Caribbean players, Chanderpaul has expressed resentment at being obliged to announce his international retirement in order to gain a No Objection Certificate to play in the Masters Champions League currently taking place in the UAE.Chanderpaul, 41, has not played international cricket since May 2015 and was omitted from the list of contracted WICB players in December.”I was given a No Objection Certificate by WICB with a clause in it that I retire on the 23rd,” Chanderpaul told ESPNcricinfo. “If I didn’t announce my retirement they would have taken it back.”I have spoken to Guyana already. I know the chairman wants me to go back and play.”They have a game against Trinidad starting on February 12. Then Barbados, then Windward Islands, Leeward Islands and Jamaica. Those are games that I’ve talked to them already about going back to play. I’ve not retired from first-class matches. I’ve retired from international games.”I wasn’t being picked to play for West Indies anymore and there was nothing else for me to do. So I decided I would come out here to the UAE and play some cricket.”While Chanderpaul earns a modest fee per match for representing Guyana, it is dwarfed by the rewards on offer – around $30,000 for just over two weeks involvement – with the MCL.”I don’t have a contract with anybody. No local boards; no West Indies board. I’ve been playing for Guyana because the coach and chairman saw the value of having me around as a player. They pay me a match fee and I play and try and help the young fellas as much as I can.Shivnarine Chanderpaul is not ready to break links with Guyana•WICB Media/Randy Brooks of Brooks LaTouche Photo

“Anything is possible in life. You can go into retirement; you can come out of retirement. It is my choice. I’m definitely still hungry to play. It’s something I’ve done most of my life. There is still passion and hunger to play.”Criticising the “brute force and ignorance” of unspecified former players, Chanderpaul is currently enjoying the stress free – and lucrative – environment provided by the MCL.Irritation lingers, however, at the manner in which his international ‘retirement’ was handled, with no recognition given to his illustrious record for the West Indies or the fact that he is contracted neither to the board or Guyana.”You can’t [chose the way you go]; not with those guys,” he said. “It’s the way we’re being treated. It’s still going on and it’s not changing. We’re being treated like that and worse sometimes. That’s how it goes.”Some of the past players had better times in their career. They don’t want to change. They want to stay the same way; have the same attitude.”But you can’t bring the same thing to the table every time because you’re not going to go anywhere. We’re not going forward. We’re just going down. They’re creating some problems.”As much as you’re saying we have past players, they are the ones who are creating the problem because they have their ways – their old ways – and there’s brute force and ignorance and they’re still carrying it around and still expecting things to go the same way.”You feel much better just coming out here to play [in the MCL]; without all the stress, without all the other stuff that’s going on.”

Sri Lanka have lost a long-standing umpire following the death of Stanley Kuruppu. Kuruppu, 82, father of former Sri Lanka wicketkeeper Brendon Kuruppu, was renowned for his services to the umpiring fraternity in Sri Lanka. He was a pioneer in forming the umpires committee for the board in the mid-sixties.Kuruppu was a qualified Grade One umpire and officiated in division I club cricket and important school matches. He was also the vice-president of the Association of Cricket Umpires and Scorers Sri Lanka (ACUSL), who later became a life member for his services to umpiring.He did a lot to promote the game and popularise it. Kuruppu had thorough knowledge of the laws of the game and conducted many seminars on umpiring for the benefit of up and coming umpires. A government servant in the clerical grade, he also served as president of the Sri Lanka Softball Association. He was ailing for a long time and is survived by his second wife Dulcie and two children.

The contracts tussle between Cricket Australia and the Indian Premier League (IPL) has been resolved, ending weeks of uncertainty over the availability of top Australian players for the Twenty20 tournament.”The issue has been resolved,” IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi told Cricinfo. “Two or three Australian players have already signed up with IPL. Hopefully, in the next 24 hours, this will go down the line. The process has already begun. Now it’s just a matter of getting through to the Australian players and their agents,” Modi said.The dispute revolved round protecting the rights of the Australian team’s global sponsors during the tournament, which will be telecast live in Australia by Channel Ten. However, asked whether the compromise that has been worked out involved compensation or protection to Australia’s sponsors, Modi said: “No. We have made it clear.”A resolution to the issue was on the cards, given that the last day for players to sign up for the IPL – as indicated by Modi – was Sunday. On Thursday, a senior Indian cricket board official had told Cricinfo that the contracts tussle was nearing a resolution. “It’s not a conflict situation any longer. We are looking at a resolution now,” the official had said.The IPL organisers are now looking for some clarity to emerge on Australia’s impending Test tour of Pakistan before the deadline. Cricket Australia’s security advisors have warned against going ahead with the tour and a cancellation will enable the biggest names, including Ricky Ponting, the captain, and fast bowler Brett Lee, to appear for the IPL.

New Zealand judge John Hansen has been appointed commissioner for Harbhajan Singh’s appeal against the finding that he was guilty of making racist comments during the second Test against Australia in Sydney.Justice Hansen is a High Court Judge and New Zealand Cricket’s appointee on the ICC’s Code of Conduct Commission.Harbhajan was given a three-Test ban after match referee Mike Procter upheld a complaint from Ricky Ponting that he insulted allrounder Andrew Symonds by calling him a “monkey”. The finding and sanction enraged the Indians, who were already upset by several umpiring decisions that went against them in the Test.The ICC said it had received official notification of the appeal from the Indian board on Monday and appointed Justice Hansen in line with ICC Code of Conduct processes. No time, date or venue for the appeal have yet been fixed, but an ICC release said the process “indicates that the appeal should be heard within seven days of the commissioner being appointed.” This time period, it added, may be extended depending on circumstances.In the meantime, Harbhajan may continue to play pending the verdict of the appeal being given. The BCCI announced late Tuesday that the tour in Australia would go ahead.

Ali Asghar Lobi, the former president of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), has been sentenced to 13 years in prison after being found guilty of corruption by a Dhaka court.”Asghar will have to serve 10 years in jail for [ illegally] amassing wealth, and another three years for concealing the information in his wealth statement to the Anti-Corruption Commission,” the state prosecutor told reporters. “The jail terms will commence one after another.”He was also ordered to pay a US$14,500 fine or face an additional six months in prison, and his wife, Khusnud, was sentenced to three years for abetting her husband.Asghar was president of the BCB between 2001 and 2006 when the BNP, of which he was a member, was in power. He was also president of the Asian Cricket Council for two years.In January, the government was overthrown by an army-backed interim government. Asghar was arrested the following month as part of a massive crackdown on corruption. In July he received an eight-year term after being found guilty of tax evasion.

The match between Knights and Cape Cobras in Kimberley was tied after rain ended play with the scores level on the D/L method during the chase. Pursuing 182, Rilee Rossouw made an explosive start, scoring 29 at a strike-rate of 241 to lead Knights to 40 in 2.5 overs, when he was dismissed. Wickets began to fall before partnerships could be built after that, and though they maintained a run-rate of close to 10, Knights had slipped to 119 for 5 when rain ended play after the 13th over. As it turned out, they were on par with the D-L score. In their innings, the Cape Cobras top three produced quick and substantial contributions to lead their team to 181 for 4. Andrew Puttick made 51, Stiaan van Zyl 48 and Owais Shah 45.Half-centuries from Martin van Jaarsveld and Farhaan Berhadien helped set up Titans‘ 29-run victory against Warriors in East London. The pair lifted Titans from 45 for 3 in the sixth over, after they had decided to bat, with a 94-run partnership. van Jaarsveld made 77 off 46 balls and Behardien an unbeaten 54 off 37. Both batsmen hit three sixes, and Titans finished with 174 for 5 from 20 overs. Titans’ decision to open the defense with Roelof van der Merwe’s spin paid off as JJ Smuts was dismissed in the first over. van der Merwe went on to have figures of 2 for 21 in four overs. Left-arm spinner Paul Harris also had a good outing, taking 3 for 22, his wickets being those of the Warriors’ top-scorer Ashwell Price, for 49, and middle-order batsmen Justin Kreusch and Kelly Smuts. The Warriors lost wickets at regular intervals and were restricted to 145 for 7 in their 20 overs.Impi made their debut against Lions in Potchefstroom and it was not a happy one. They were restricted and dismissed for 92 in 19.5 overs in pursuit of 154. Only two Impi batsmen – Cobus Pienaar and Ryan Canning – made double-figure scores. Ethan O’Reilly had figures of 4-1-4-2 for Lions, and Aaron Phangsio and Dwaine Pretorius also took two wickets apiece. Lions did not perform impressively with the bat either, slumping from 89 for 2 to 108 for 7 in 16.3 overs, before Chris Morris blasted 31 off 13 balls to lead them to 153.

ScorecardMichael Yardy leaves the field for the final time in first-class cricket•Getty Images

Since this match was played during the university term, the large press box at Headingley, which is situated in a complex owned by Leeds Beckett University, was being used for lectures on the final day of this game.Thus, while the mighty Yorkshire bowling attack sent Sussex’s rather stunned cricketers down to the Second Division, students sat in serried rows with the blinds firmly down in the Kilner Auditorium and listened to no doubt worthy lectures on important subjects such as thermodynamics or computer science.Quite right too, perhaps, but for the undergraduates, many of whom were keen cricket fans, it must have been frustration itself. Jack Brooks removed the top three in Sussex’s order in one of the finer new-ball spells you will see and all they could hear were muffled cheers amid the theorems. “There’s music in the names I used to know / And magic when I heard them long ago”, wrote Thomas Moult in “The Names”, a golden age poem written in the persona of a cricket-loving adult remembering his schooldays.Certainly drama students might have learned something from watching the cricket on this last day of the season. Sussex began their innings needing to bat out 92 overs for the draw or score 309 runs to win. The achievement of either goal would have prolonged their five-year stay in the First Division, but they never looked like reaching either objective. Yorkshire’s bowlers saw to that.First it was Brooks, cruising in as smoothly as a sports car from the Kirkstall Lane. First he bowled a swinging full toss at the dreadfully out-of-form Ed Joyce and the Sussex skipper inside-edged it onto his stumps; then makeshift opener Chris Jordan was leg before on the back foot for 20; and in what was only Brooks’s sixth over, Matt Machan chased a wideish ball and feathered a catch to Jonny Bairstow. Sussex were 39 for 3 in the 12th over and there was already a horrid gash below their waterline.The crowd at Headingley enjoyed it all hugely, of course, but the students in their lecture theatre, whatever they were thinking, saw none of it. “Drone on, O teacher, you can’t trouble me,” Moult’s poem continues. “If you choose to keep us here while cricket’s in the air, / You must expect our minds to wander down the roads to Leicester, Lord’s and Leeds …”And at Leeds this final morning, things got rapidly worse for Sussex as Tim Bresnan joined in the fun. He bowled Chris Nash through the gate for 17 and induced Luke Wright to drive most unwisely at a wider delivery of full length. Sussex were 63 for 5 at lunch and the writing was as clear upon the walls as the equations were on the flip-charts. When you only win one of your final 11 games, as Sussex have done, you are going to struggle; and when your seam bowlers – James Anyon, Ajmal Shahzad, Chris Jordan – are not fit for most or all of the season, while your batsmen are not in form, you are going to find it desperately hard.Hampshire may have produced a great escape worthy of Steve McQueen on his motorbike but Sussex’s relegation is hardly an enormous surprise.There was some resistance, though, and it came from Michael Yardy, who was batting for the final time in his career, and Ben Brown, who passed a thousand runs for the season during his innings of 42. The pair added 79 in 20 overs that offered some hope that a defence worthy of mythology might be mounted. Their partnership stretched deep into the afternoon, by which time a party of schoolchildren had joined the crowd, a splash of purple amid the dark anoraks and fleeces.Indeed, many spectators at Headingley probably had mixed feelings this final afternoon. They were watching their team achieve a record 11th Championship victory and win the First Division by 68 points, which is greater than the margin between runners-up Middlesex and bottom-placed Worcestershire. This is a great Yorkshire team and it must be a wonderful time to follow the White Rose.At the same time there were many who might empathise with the phrase , the evocative title chosen by the John Arlott for one of his books. For it connotes not just a physical presence but a deeper commitment. “Where’s John?” friends would ask Arlott’s mother, only to receive the answer: “Oh, he’s gone with the cricketers.” And so he was, for much of the rest of his life.And so they were at Headingley when they stood to applaud Yardy as he left first-class cricket after gloving an attempted hook to Alex Lees at first slip. There was no more touching sight than the Yorkshire team queueing up to shake the hand of the player they had just dismissed.Yardy’s dismissal by Bresnan for 41 was followed twelve balls later by that of Brown, the Sussex wicketkeeper clipping Adil Rashid straight to short leg, where Jack Leaning grabbed a brilliant catch. That left Sussex on 142 for 7 and, although the last three wickets took a shade under an hour to fall, there was now no doubt which way the river was flowing. Rashid helped himself to a couple more scalps and Adam Lyth, on his 28th birthday, had Ashar Zaidi leg before for 47.At ten past three Chris Liddle was plumb enough to Rashid and the celebrations began on the outfield even as the dull realisation sunk in among the Sussex players. Dickie Bird presented the County Championship trophy to Andrew Gale, who has now received it three times in successive games. Mark Robinson, the Sussex coach, offered dignified congratulations to both Yorkshire and Hampshire; he refused to make elaborate excuses; he is a cricket man.The supporters gathered on the outfield and watched their players begin the latest of what have already been many celebrations. And, as is often the case at this time of year, the spectators were slow to leave, reluctant, perhaps, to leave one home for another. Eventually they drifted away, though, and soon they must follow the different rhythms of autumn. But it will not be long before they are thinking of next April when there will be music in the names once again and we shall be gone with the cricketers.

1994
South Africa’s return to England was an immediate success with a thumping 356-run win at Lord’s. When Brian McMillan – who threatened with bat and ball all series – trapped Angus Fraser lbw, the South African flag was joyously waved from the balcony, and the disparity in confidence between the two teams was further widened with Mike Atherton’s “dirt in the pocket” affair which muddied South Africa’s momentous return. England bounced back, sparked by Devon Malcolm’s sensational 9 for 57 in the third Test at The Oval, inspired by receiving a nasty clang to the helmet. “You guys are history,” he famously muttered under his grille to Fanie de Villiers’ bouncer and, for one Test, they were just that.
England 1 South Africa 1 Drawn 11995-96
A long, wet and losing tour for England – their fourth in a row – and South Africa’s fast bowlers, in between the rain, revelled in the seaming conditions. After a draw at Centurion, South Africa bounced into life at Johannesburg to gain a 132-run lead in the first innings. McMillan’s second-innings 100 set England an unlikely 479 to win, but they stuttered to 167 for 4 by the close of the fourth day with Atherton unbeaten on 82. And then the remarkable happened, as Atherton played the innings of his life on the fifth day to single-handedly haul England to the most memorable of draws. Gary Kirsten dropped him on 99. Atherton was chivvied along by Jack Russell who infuriated South Africa for 274 minutes, but for all England’s euphoria, this represented their high of a tour in which they were continually chasing South Africa’s coat tails. Allan Donald, the Man of the Series, routed England in their first innings at Cape Town, before a young and very quick Shaun Pollock did the same in their second dig.
South Africa 1 England 0 Drawn 41998
English cricket couldn’t get onto the back pages of the press in 1998 even if it tried, with the football World Cup dominating society. Considering their general haplessness at Lord’s, this was probably a relief to the England chiefs, but Robert Croft inspired them to a morale-boosting draw at Old Trafford. All seemed lost when Atherton and his successor, Alec Stewart, both fell on the fifth morning, but Croft – who’d hardly taken a wicket or nudged a run all series – discovered previously unknown levels of resistance: three hours and ten minutes, in fact, and England had turned the corner. Fraser took 10 wickets at Trent Bridge and Atherton somehow staved off an increasingly apoplectic Donald, in a duel that immediately went down in cricket folklore. The momentum was with England, and Darren Gough tore into South Africa with six wickets in the final Test at Headingley. It was England’s first big series win since Australia in 1986-87, and their joy was unconfined.
England 2 South Africa 1 Drawn 2

1999-2000
There were absolutely no positives England could clutch at when South Africa reduced them to 2 for 4 in the first Test at Johannesburg, but it was arguably the making of Michael Vaughan. His two-hour 33 lifted England out of the mire, briefly, though South Africa responded to their risible 122 with 403 for 9 declared. Donald ended England’s misery with 5 for 74 in their second innings. The tourists responded with a far improved performance at Port Elizabeth, led by two wonderfully determined fifties from their captain, Nasser Hussain, whose five-hour 70 staved off South Africa’s unrelenting seamers to seal a draw. His excellent form earned him a fighting century at Durban, though he was outclassed by a magnificent 275 from Gary Kirsten in a dull draw, before South Africa wrapped up the series in the fourth Test in Cape Town. England made it a contest for much of the game, before two horrific batting collapses reminded everyone of the uphill task their new-look side faced. Hansie Cronje and Hussain enlivened the final Test that was heading towards the dullest of draws, forfeiting innings to leave England chasing 249. They squeezed home with five balls and two wickets remaining, but five months later it transpired Cronje had received 53,000 rand (around £5,000), and England’s morale-boosting win was recorded in history as the first officially recognised “fixed” Test.
South Africa 2 England 1 Drawn 22003
For the third time since readmission, South Africa were left ruing a series they should have won. At the end of the first Test England were in turmoil as Hussain resigned and Vaughan was thrust into the captaincy after a successful start with the one-day side. Hussain’s final Test in charge found England firmly on the back foot as Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs added 338 for the first wicket with Smith making a destructive 277. Rain, and an elegant century from Vaughan, helped save the game, but it was a destabilised England side that arrived at Lord’s and South Africa took full advantage. Smith rattled off his second double-century and Makhaya Ntini bagged 10 wickets in an innings-and-92-run victory. After such a hammering it was to Vaughan’s credit that England regrouped on a lively pitch at Trent Bridge with James Kirtley taking 6 for 39 on debut to level the series. The home side were quickly on top again at Headingley where Martin Bicknell was recalled after a gap of ten years, with South Africa reduced to 21 for 4 on a green seamer, but England’s batsmen went to pieces and Gary Kirsten made an outstanding 130. The subsequent 191-run defeat left Vaughan questioning the strength of the English game and his comments appeared valid when South Africa were 290 for 1 on the first day of the final Test at The Oval. Then one of the more remarkable transformations began to take shape with Marcus Trescothick hitting a memorable 219, but the real story came from Graham Thorpe, who made 124 on his recall. Still, though, England only appeared set for parity, enough to almost guarantee South Africa the series. Enter Andrew Flintoff and a breathtaking 95 and suddenly Vaughan was able to declare 120 before Bicknell and a fiery Steve Harmison whittled out South Africa for 229. The rest was easy for England, as Alec Stewart was given a victorious send-off in his final Test.
England 2 South Africa 2 Drawn 12004-05
England’s first series victory in South Africa for 40 years is often forgotten because of the Ashes triumph that followed, but this represented one of their most impressive overseas results. They carried the momentum from the previous summer (where they’d won all seven Tests) into the opening encounter in Port Elizabeth as Andrew Strauss made 126 and 94 not out in a seven-wicket win. England’s run of eight consecutive victories (and 11 in 12 Tests) was ended by bad light in Durban with South Africa eight down in their second innings. The visitors had fought back from being bowled for 139 in the first innings as Strauss and Trescothick added 273 second time around. Back-to-back Tests, though, were a tough ask especially when England had to bowl first in Cape Town. Jacques Kallis made another hundred and England were never in the match as they went down by 196 runs. However, the series turned with a dramatic match in Johannesburg as Matthew Hoggard enjoyed his finest hour. Another Strauss ton, followed by a flamboyant 180 from Trescothick, set South Africa 325 in 68 overs. Hoggard ripped into them, adding to his first-innings 5 for 144 with a career-best 7 for 61, England’s best match figures for 12 years, as they won with seven overs to spare. It was almost a one-man show as neither Harmison or Flintoff were fully fit and James Anderson had a nightmare game. As usual when England tour rain played a part at Centurion Park and took time out of the match. South Africa tested England’s nerve more than once, but an historic series success was secured.
South Africa 1 England 2 Drawn 22008
With one of the greatest innings produced in a run chase, Graeme Smith led his team to an historic series victory in England with a monumental uneaten 154 at Edgbaston. It was a captain’s innings of the highest order and brought the downfall of his opposite number, Michael Vaughan, who tearfully resigned the following day and handed the reigns to Kevin Pietersen (albeit briefly). The series had started on a much more promising note for England as Pietersen hit 152 in his first Test innings against his countrymen and Ian Bell made a career-best 199 as the home side piled up 593 for 8 at Lord’s. They managed to enforce the follow-on, but ran out of steam on another featherbed at NW8 as centuries from Smith, Neil McKenzie and Hashim Amla eased South Africa to a draw. At Headingley, Andrew Flintoff made his long-awaited comeback but it was the selection of Darren Pattinson, the Nottinghamshire swing bowler who had grown up in Australia, that was the talking point and from then on England were a dishevelled bunch. The batting collapsed twice to South Africa’s pace attack while the visitors rode on fine hundreds by Ashwell Prince and AB de Villiers. Edgbaston proved a thrilling contest with Flintoff producing a fearsome spell on the second evening to haul England back into the match before Paul Collingwood, with his career hanging by a thread, produced one of the gutsiest centuries imaginable alongside Pietersen’s flamboyant 94. In the end, South Africa needed a challenging 281 and at 93 for 4 England were on track to level the series, but Smith’s epic won the day. A few days later, under their new leader, England restored pride with a consolation victory at The Oval with new captain Pietersen marking the occasion with another hundred. Over the next two weeks he would also lead the team to a crushing 4-0 one-day series success, but his fun wouldn’t last much longer.
Tests England 1 South Africa 2 Drawn 1
ODIs England 4 South Africa 0 Abandoned 1Graeme Swann lead England to an innings victory in Durban as the 2009/10 Test series was shared•PA Photos

2009/10
The tour began with a largely unexpected ODI series win for England – their first in South Africa. The abandonment of the first and last games reduced the series to a best-of-three. Paul Collingwood’s century at Centurion won the second match; AB de Villier’s ton set up the leveller in the third before James Anderson ran through the hosts in Port Elizabeth: South Africa bowled out for 119 and England took what ended up as a series-clinching victory.The Test series was characterised by England’s two last-gasp escapes. Chasing 364 to win the first Test at Centurion, England were sailing to a draw at tea. But after the interval the run out of Kevin Pietersen began a collapse against the new ball. Five wickets went down for 13 runs with Freidel de Wet, on Test debut, taking 4 for 55 and the run out of Pietersen. England needed No. 11 Graham Onions to survive 12 balls to save the match.Onions’ rearguard action was called upon again in the New Year’s Test at Cape Town – the third of the series. South Africa built up a big lead in the third innings lead by Graeme Smith’s 183, leaving England four sessions to save the game. The Test looked lost when the tourists slipped to 160 for 5 after a century opening stand but Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell took England into the last hour with a stand of 112. But both fell and England again crumbled to leave the final pair – Graeme Swann and Onions – to survive 17 balls.Between the two backs-against-the-wall draws, England won the Boxing Day Test by an innings in Durban to lead the series. Hundreds for Alastair Cook and Bell gave England a first-innings lead of 231 before Swann’s five and Stuart Broad’s four wickets shot out the hosts for 133.But given their near-misses either side of the Durban defeat South Africa finally, and perhaps deservedly, levelled the series in the final Test in Johannesburg with a thumping innings victory. England couldn’t live with Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel who shared 14 wickets in the match. The Test included one of the early controversies with DRS – Graham Smith, who went on to score a century, was given not out caught behind when a clear edge could be heard on the replay; third umpire Daryll Harper didn’t have the microphone turned up so couldn’t hear the snick.
Tests South Africa 1 England 1 Drawn 2
ODIs South Africa 1 England 2 Abandoned 2

Mahela Jayawardene has urged his side to adopt a smarter approach following Sri Lanka’s 63-run loss to Australia in the sixth CB Series match in Perth.Sri Lanka were in with a great chance to notch up their first win over Australia but a meek batting performance put paid to their chances. “We need to go hard, but the shot selection has to be a bit better,” he said after the loss. “In world cricket a lot of guys do go hard up front, with the power plays and all that, but the guys have got to be a bit smarter.Kumar Sangakkara played a lone hand in the Sri Lankan run-chase but the rest gave it away with some poor strokeplay. “The way we lost wickets was not good,” he said. “At crucial times, we keep losing wickets and you can’t do that in a run chase.”The tailenders once again failed to make an impression – the last five wickets put together only 14 – and Jayawardene wanted to see Chamara Silva, Farveez Maharoof, Chamara Kapugedera and Nuwan Kulasekera take up more responsibility with the bat. “These guys can bat and they have scored runs and we need to get their confidence back,” he said.Sri Lanka, who were off to a poor start in the series, revived their chances with a thumping eight-wicket win against India on Tuesday. However, Sri Lanka’s batsmen are yet to fire against Australia – having collapsed against them on both occasions. Sanath Jayasuriya has shown only glimpses of form, with 46 runs at 15.33, while Jayawardene, Silva and Tillakaratne Dilshan all fell cheaply when up against Australia.Sri Lanka take on India in their next match in Adelaide on Tuesday.