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RP Singh, India’s left-arm swing bowler, spent less than a month at Leicestershire earlier this season but that was the period he fine-tuned the delivery jagging back into the right-handers, says Tim Boon, the senior coach at the county.With a memorable five-wicket haul at Lord’s and a couple of fine bursts at Trent Bridge, RP Singh has been a revelation on India’s tour to England. Considering that he has never played three Tests in a series before, his haul of 10 wickets from two Tests has been quite a special effort. Not only did he grab important wickets – including Michael Vaughan’s at Lord’s and Kevin Pietersen’s at Nottingham – he also consistently clocked more than 80mph, swinging the ball either way and extracting disconcerting bounce.”The first thing we did once he got off the plane was muscle screening,” said Boon, who worked as a video analyst-cum-coach with England’s Ashes-winning side of 2005 and has been linked to the Indian coaching job recently. “It was clear there were some deficiencies with regard to leg strength. My praise goes to the physio for identifying something that can affect his action. He was given specific strength work to do which created more stability.”Susie Woolmer, the county’s strength and conditioning coach, explained the regimen RP Singh had been put through. “We devised a programme that would improve his core strength but specifically focused on his right hip, the right buttock and upper part of the leg to give more strength. We had seen muscle tightness and it was felt the weakness in this area was causing him to fall away. Strengthening those would give him a more powerful landing foot and a much higher release point.”Boon noticed an immediate improvement, especially with regard to the ball that came into the right-hander. “Once he increased his leg strength, there was more stability in his run through the crease, which in turn gave him a better wrist position. He could get off the back foot quicker. And look at the end result. He can swing the ball back into the right-hander and away from the left.”Boon also credited Singh’s work ethic. “His commitment and desire to want to change – get an extra half-yard, swing the ball into the right-hander – was there. He came off the plane and played the next day. He said he felt as if he was bowling with deep-sea diving boots on.”Zaheer Khan, who bowled India to victory at Trent Bridge, has spoken about the importance of his stint with Worcestershire. If India go on to win the series, they may have the English county game to thank for some of the success.

Late to the party
Junaid Siddique has spent most of the ICC World Twenty20 warming the Bangladesh bench, but was finally given an outing in their last match of the tournament. He showed no fear, coming down the track at Sohail Tanvir, who has been Pakistan’s bowling find, and then pulling a short ball high into the stands at midwicket. Mohammad Asif also came in for some rough treatment when he over-pitched, and Bangladesh may just have been wishing Siddique had played earlier.Time to consolidate
Pakistan’s spinners struck back with quick wickets and most teams would have taken at least a few moments to reassess the situation before deciding on their next move. However, Siddique was having none of it. Two balls after Bangladesh lost a third wicket in three overs he came down the pitch and launched Mohammad Hafeez handsomely over long-on for consecutive sixes. By the time he was caught on the boundary he had Bangladesh’s highest individual score of the tournament.Take a blow
Mashrafe Mortaza hasn’t been too fond of getting in line when he’s at the crease, walking away towards square leg and aiming some agricultural heaves over midwicket. It was more of the same here, but on one occasion when Mortaza backed away Umar Gul followed him with a well-directed bouncer. Mortaza took a blow flush on the helmet. He picked up a leg-bye and unsurprisingly didn’t last much longer.Asif goes slow
Asif didn’t hit anywhere near top gear, perhaps aware that Pakistan had done the hard work and qualified for the semi-finals. His opening spell was barely medium pace, and he struggled with his line. When he returned for a second stint, however, wickets had tumbled and the batsmen were trying to see out the innings. He bowled an ultra-slow slower-ball at Mortaza, who found himself in a complete tangle and lost his leg stump. But it wasn’t Asif’s most distinguished spell of the tournament.When everyone else laughs
It’s a sight that makes team-mates and spectators cringe then giggle; a batsman getting hit in a very delicate area. Imran Nazir went to pull the third ball of the innings from Mortaza but failed to make contact and was struck right on the spot. He went down in slow-motion – and struggled to get up again. Fellow players gathered around and the physio came out to see what he could do, however there aren’t many options for this type of injury. After a couple of minutes Nazir decided he couldn’t carry on and hobbled off, and still had to stop half-way to catch his breath. He then spent a few minutes doubled up on the boundary edge before returning at the fall of the fifth wicket and guiding his team home.Butt goes to sleep
Bangladesh fought until the end of their involvement in the Twenty20. They executed a bizarre run-out against Salman Butt, who swung the ball into the leg side and completed a single before turning and thinking of a second. His partner, Nazir, sent him back and the throw was coming safely to the wicketkeeper’s end. Mushfiqur Rahim collected and noticed Butt was slow returning to his ground. He threw the ball to Mortaza who calmly removed the bails and Butt was gone.

A gallant unbeaten 91 by Ahmed Quadri helped Hyderabad to salvage threepoints from their South Zone Cooch Behar Trophy match against TamilNadu at the Gymkhana ground in Hyderabad on Monday.In arrears by 168 runs on the first innings, Hyderabad were in dangerof losing when they were five down for 77, despite a second wicketpartnership of 69 runs between Shashang Nag (37) and Abhinav Kumar(28). It was at this critical juncture that Qadri entered. First withAT Rayudu (13) he added 39 runs for the sixth wicket. This wasfollowed by a seventh wicket stand of 41 runs with Varun (11). Finallyafter eight wickets had gone for 167 runs, Qadri and Nadeemuddin (9)shared an unbroken ninth wicket association of 43 runs off just 6.2overs to steer Hyderabad to safety. P Satish, who had caused themiddle order collapse, was the most successful bowler with four for73. Qadri faced 114 balls and hit 14 fours in his match saving knockas Hyderabad ended at 210 for eight.Earlier, Tamil Nadu resuming at 313 for six, declared at 384 foreight. Vidyuth Sivaramakrishnan (36) and G Vignesh (59) added 88 runsfor the seventh wicket off 24.4 overs. Vignesh faced 84 balls and hitten fours and a six. Tamil Nadu got five points from the match. TamilNadu finished their engagements with 18 points and Hyderabad with 25points.

What is it?
A mirror image of a right-armer’s legbreak, a chinaman is a ball from a left-armer that is bowled over the wrist and turns the opposite way to orthodox left-arm spin. In other words, it spins in to the right-hand batsman and away from the left-hander – from left to right on a TV screen.What is the term’s origin?
Charlie “Buck” Llewellyn, a South African allrounder who played circa the end of the 19th century, laid claim to inventing the delivery. But the term is more traditionally believed to have originated with the former West Indian spinner Ellis “Puss” Achong. In the 1933 Old Trafford Test, Achong, a left-arm orthodox spinner and the first Test cricketer of Chinese ancestry, bowled an unexpected wrist-spin delivery that turned from off to leg, and had the English batsman Walter Robins stumped. Legend has it that Robins, as he walked back to the pavilion, remarked, “Fancy being done by a bloody Chinaman.”Who are the famous practitioners of the art?
Chuck Fleetwood-Smith, Garry Sobers, and more recently, Paul Adams, Michael Bevan, Brad Hogg, and Dave Mohammed are among the better known ones.What variations does a chinaman bowler have?
A googly, just like a legspinner. Only in this case the googly leaves the right-hander and comes into a left-hander.Why are Chinaman bowlers so rare?
It is difficult to control left-arm wrist spin (as also traditional legspin). And by and large the ball coming in to a right-hander is considered less dangerous than the one leaving him.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

India Under-19s’ victory against their counterparts from Papua New Guinea may not have been as emphatic as the other three matches on the opening day of the World Cup but their performance was efficient, steady, if notspectacular, and thoroughly satisfactory.Their batsmen paced the innings sensibly after being put in. The openers- Shreevats Goswami and Taruwar Kohli, laid a strong foundation with apartnership of 100, the middle-order maintained a steady run-rate, keepingrisks to a minimum in order to preserve wickets for the final overs andTanmay Srivatsava provided the acceleration towards the end to spur Indiatoward 280 for 5. They did not decimate the bowling like Michael Hill didagainst Namibia but all of the top-order batsmen spent considerable timein the middle.The bowlers, too, did not scythe through Papua New Guinea like Adil Raza’sred-hot attack against Malaysia but they were disciplined and rarelystrayed off line. The Papua New Guinea batsmen like to hit across the lineand the rarity of such shots was an indication of the lengths bowled bythe Indians. All the bowlers had a work out and apart from Ravindra Jadejaand Taruwar, who went for 11 off two overs of medium-pace, everyone pickedup wickets. Pradeep Sangwan was the pick of the lot, striking twice earlyin his first spell while Abdulla scalped 3 for 2 off three overs towardsthe end as Papua New Guinea folded for 85.”We wanted to play as well as we can early in the game, withoutunderestimating the opposition,” Dav Whatmore, India’s coach, said. “We felt that if we didthat well, the margin would be big at the end of the game.”The margin of victory was huge – 195 runs – and it was built onperformances by players who made people take notice during the 2007-08Ranji Trophy and on the U-19 circuit. Srivatsava scored his maidenfirst-class hundred in the Ranji final against Delhi and made 466 runs inthe season, Virat Kohli scored 373 at an average of 53 while Sangwan took33 wickets at 19.42 apiece. Goswami, hasn’t played first-class cricket yetbut he’s been among the runs on the U-19 tour to South Africa.Goswami played his drives fluently, getting to the pitch of fulldeliveries and placing them through the covers with more timing than power. Hegot to his half-century, his second in Malaysia after scoring 91 in thewarm-up against New Zealand, with a cover-drive against ColinAmini’s offspin. However, he suffered a bout of cramps soon after – thehot and humid weather in Kuala Lumpur is energy sapping – and was dismissedfor 58.India had lost both their openers in the space of five overs and Virat andSrivatsava continued to build the momentum steadily rather than playingattacking shots. Whatmore said that Srivatsava’s role at No 3 was vital.”He just reassures everyone and adds calmness because we’ve got somereally good strikers like Virat. Tanmay is able to bat long and involvehimself in partnerships.”Srivatsava displayed patience as he started slowly, scoring 21 off hisfirst 40 deliveries. However, as India entered the 40th over he began tostep on it. The Kinrara Oval is a large ground but he muscled three largesixes over the leg side – one each over square leg, midwicket and long-on- to finish with 83 off 76 deliveries.Sangwan’s radar went missing for his first ball, which went forfive wides, but he made up by pitching his fourth ball bang on target andtrapping Heini Saika plumb in front. He made the ball move away from theright-handers and brought the odd one back in to trap the batsman – it washow he got his second wicket as well.A 195-run victory indicates a massive thrashing but Papua New Guinea didcreditably in the field. Their ground fielding was sharp, their catchingsafe – apart from one drop in the 49th over – and their bowling, leavingaside the tendency to bowl wides, was satisfactory. Jason Kila was thepick of them, taking 1 for 37 off ten overs of restrictive left-arm spin,while Joel Tom bowled a tight line and length at medium-pace and concededonly 16 off six overs. Whatmore said that he had been impressed by their”defensive game” on the field.It was Papua New Guinea’s batting that disappointed but the collapsewasn’t entirely unexpected. Today’s game was the first time that most ofthem were playing on turf and their inexperienced showed. Several batsmenplayed down the wrong line, John Reva edged one that bounced sharply onhim from Siddarth Kaul, and most of the lower-middle order lost theirstumps as they tried hit across the line.Papua New Guinea have two more tough gamesagainst West Indies and South Africa. For them, the tournament is allabout learning and an improved performance in the last two group matcheswill be a tremendous source of encouragement.

DrawnThe MCC batted in a carefree manner and the best stand was for the fifth wicket, when the Nawab of Pataudi and Leyland added 121. Overnight and early morning rain did not affect the wicket, which had been covered, but the outfield was very muddy, the ball sometimes stopping dead. Only just over an hour’s play was possible on the second day, when the ground was in a very bad condition, play only taking place in order not to disappoint the crowd.

Michael Vaughan believes that Marcus Trescothick’s decision not to take part in September’s Twenty20 World Championship – or the tours of Sri Lanka and New Zealand which follow – could yet help save his international career.Many players and pundits, including Graham Thorpe, who himself went through a similar period of international exile, believe that Trescothick’s decision could spell the end of his 76-Test career, but Vaughan, speaking on the eve of England’s second Test against India at Trent Bridge, held the opposite view.”It can’t have been easy for him to say he’s not going to tour with England because I know he’s desperate to get out there and play,” said Vaughan. “But I think by making this decision it could give him a chance of playing again. The last thing I wanted was for him to come out and play too soon because I thought that could be the end of him.”Trescothick has not featured in England’s plans since he withdrew from England’s tour of Australia last November, citing a recurrence of the stress-related illness that had forced him home from the Test series in India eight months earlier. “Unless you’ve actually been through a stress-related illness I don’t think any of us can understand what he’s going through,” said Vaughan. “We can all have an opinion but I have every respect for the decision he’s made and a lot of respect for the way he’s coped with it over the last few months, because it can’t have been easy.”It’s a completely individual thing that he’s had to do,” added Vaughan. “It must be very difficult after what he’s gone through because I know the one thing that Tres loves doing more than anything is playing cricket for England. He’s not ready at the minute and he’s got to have a bit more time and hopefully that time will get him in the right frame of mind and get his body right to make sure he will play again.”Rahul Dravid, India’s captain, sympathised with Trescothick’s situation, and admitted that the sheer weight of matches being played these days can take its toll on all players. “One needs to devise strategies to cope,” he said. “Some years can be tough, some put a lot of pressure on you, especially for countries like India – we don’t have a set summer as such.”From a captaincy point of view you have to manage your situation and your players,” said Dravid. “In July we can be in West Indies some year, England some other year. We’re usually not in India in November – our winter when we should be playing. With a lot of cricket being played these days, it’s a question of how people are going to cope.”Even if Trescothick does get back to the right frame of mind for international cricket, the success with which his replacement, Alastair Cook, has bedded into the Test side, means he may no longer be an automatic choice. “It’s not nice when a senior player can’t play but what it does do is create opportunities,” said Vaughan. “Cook is playing very well and we’ve got guys waitingin the wings who are playing well in the county games who, given theiropportunity I’m sure would do very well as well.”We’re trying to build up as big a pool of players as we can to be available and good enough to play Testand one-day cricket for England,” said Vaughan. “We think we’re getting pretty close tothat.”

South Africa 176 for 4 (Duminy 79*) beat West Indies 175 (Sammy 51, Morton 41) by six wickets
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

A bustling unbeaten 79 from JP Duminy helped South Africa to a six-wicket win in the opening game of this five-ODI series at Centurion. They strolled home with two overs in the bank but that hides the fact that they had more than a few uneasy moments during their chase.The match, reduced to 36 overs a side after heavy overnight rain, followed a similar pattern to Friday’s Twenty20. South Africa’s bowlers took an early stranglehold, West Indies battled back, South Africa’s batsmen wobbled before their strength in depth enabled them to secure victory. Two days ago Shaun Pollock was the hero; today it was JP Duminy.Chasing a modest 176, South Africa got off to a shocking start, losing both openers inside four overs. Jacques Kallis and Duminy were building a good recovery when light rain started to fall. All eyes turned to the Duckworth-Lewis calculations, something that still tends to cause nightmares in these parts, and the possibility of an artificial finish appeared to rattle the batsmen. Kallis fell to add to dressing-room jitters, but as the weather eased Duminy and Justin Ontong regained their composure and took charge. West Indies, hampered by a wet outfield and a soggy ball, were not helped by the conditions, although their cause was further hindered by some dreadful fielding as the match slipped from their grasp.That it was Duminy, one of their new boys, that anchored the chase was the icing on the cake for South Africa. Too often it has been left to the old guard to dig them out of trouble, but his innings was measured, his shot selection sound, and more importantly he did not panic even when the rain was falling.West Indies again looked at least one bowler light and Bravo, who had said before the start he could not bowl, felt the need to bring himself on. It almost worked as he removed Ontong with a brilliant diving caught-and-bowled in his first over, but thereafter he looked like a man uneasy with his body. That he felt that he had no option but to haul himself into the attack underlined the lack of faith in some of the other options.In fairness to West Indies, it was to their credit that they made a match of it at all after they were stuck in in seamer-friendly conditions and then slid to 81 for 6. The rain juiced up the pitch and South Africa’s impressive all-seam attack did the rest. It took a solid seventh-wicket stand of 69 between Darren Sammy and Runako Morton and then some old-fashioned hitting late on to boost them to 175.The seamers bowled a nagging length which prevented the batsmen from getting onto the front foot, and the middle order came and went in a flurry of shots born out of frustration.What will concern South Africa is the way that once again they failed to finish the job after doing all the hard work. There was some excellent fielding, none better than Pollock’s pinpoint return to the keeper from long-on to run out Morton, but there was too much sloppy stuff in among it.Had the match gone to the wire then South Africa would also have had some justification to gripe about the umpires who twice in as many overs declined to refer run-out appeals when replays showed the batsmen to be short of their ground. It was either incompetence or a show of solidarity with Steve Bucknor, but there would have been far more of a stink had West Indies won by the odd run or two.The two sides now head to Cape Town for the second match on Friday. West Indies have lost four on the trot and despite twice hauling themselves back into games after poor starts, they have nothing to show for all their efforts. They need to get a win or their morale could start to drain away rapidly.

The third day at the SSC couldn’t have gone much better for Mahela Jayawardene. His unbeaten 167 led Sri Lanka to a 28-run lead over England with six wickets remaining and in the process he became his country’s leading run scorer and set a new milestone for a single batsman at a Test venue, pushing Graham Gooch’s Lord’s record into second place.However, in typical Jayawardene manner it was the team position that was more satisfying to him than the personal success. “It was important for us that we batted through the first session. England had put us under pressure by scoring 351 so we needed to make sure we bat through the day today without too many hiccups,” he said. “Now we’ve got an advantage we need to push ourselves and go for a win if we really work hard tomorrow.”On a wicket like this the second, third and fourth days are the best to bat on. Batting England out of the Test would be our first target which we’ve gone three quarter of the way to doing. We just need to make sure we push that advantage in a couple of more sessions by scoring a couple of hundred more runs. Then England cannot put us back under pressure. They need to make sure they save this Test match. It will be interesting to see what Murali can do on a fifth day wicket.”During the course of the day Jayawardene set up many records, surpassing Sanath Jayasuriya’s tally of 6973 runs to become Sri Lanka’s most prolific batsman and becoming the first Sri Lanka batsman to cross the 7000-run mark in Tests. He also equalled Aravinda de Silva’s highest number of Test hundreds when he completed his 20th ton.”I am very honoured to have passed Sanath’s record. He’s been a brilliant ambassador for us. He pushed the limits for a lot of youngsters in Sri Lanka cricket and challenged everybody,” said Jayawardene. “I just need to work hard at my game. Everyday you learn something out there when you play international cricket. You bring that into your game and make sure you improve. As a team we try and work harder challenging ourselves individually to be better players. That’s what it’s all about.”With Jayasuriya and Marvan Atapattu recently retired, Jayawardene admitted there was more pressure on him and Kumar Sangakkara in the batting ranks to help the younger players settle in. “A lot of senior players have retired and there is a lot of responsibility on Kumar’s and my shoulder. We work really hard to make sure we carry the team through this period so that the youngsters can come through. We’ve got some exciting talent behind us. We need to guide them in the right direction.”Jayawardene’s innings took him past Gooch as the leading run scorer on an individual ground as the SSC remained a happy hunting ground. “I have played ten years of club cricket here. I know this wicket pretty well and enjoy batting here,” he said. “It’s value for your runs, a good outfield and brilliant atmosphere. If you stick to your basics and work around your stroke play and be patient, you can get a lot of runs here.”Jayawardene was the second Sri Lankan to reach three figures in the innings after Michael Vandort’s 138 set up the strong platform. Vandort needed to steady the innings after two early wickets and paid tribute to the role of Jayawardene in their 227-run stand for the third wicket.”Every Test innings is important but from the team’s point of view we were 22 for 2 when Mahela joined me. He helped me a lot throughout the innings,” he said. “We get along well in the middle because this is about the third or fourth century partnership we have put together. I have been playing a few rash shots during my innings and every time I did that he came and game me advice.”

Omar Khan, West Indies’ new team manager, has said the most important challenge for the home side ahead of the first Test against Sri Lanka in Guyana is their mental approach to the game. “I have no doubt of the quality and potential of these players and now it’s about instilling that competitive edge, that fighting spirit that is so essential for success,” Khan told the .Khan replaced Clive Lloyd as the team manager and said a new era had emerged with the arrival of the new management. John Dyson replaced Bennett King as the coach after the World Cup and later David Williams, the Trinidad & Tobago coach, was appointed the assistant coach. “This is a new era in West Indies cricket with a new management team and players must see it as a stepping stone to getting their game right and taking West Indies cricket forward.”We head into Guyana on Tuesday and from Wednesday through to Friday, we will be hosting a number of team building sessions with the hope that it can bring the players closer together and improve team unity.” Khan said though there was little time to work with the players on the mental aspect of their game he was certain, being professionals, they would respond well.Khan also said Pedro Collins’ withdrawal from the Test squad to play for Surrey was an unfortunate event. “Myself and the coach looked at Collins during the Barbados-Jamaica game and he took nine wickets. He was bowling very well and it is a pity that he won’t be with us. However, having said that, we have a number of good bowlers in our ranks and we will be well served in that department.”