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Hayden slips to change of tactics
Neil McKenzie was standing in for Graeme Smith as captain in South Africa’s second innings and his judgment early on the fourth morning was astute. Morne Morkel had started at the Randwick End but soon switched to the Paddington End where he could aim for the big cracking running down the pitch, which was particularly difficult for left-handers. Matthew Hayden tried to loft Morkel’s fifth ball over midwicket but could get only an inside edge, which rebounded on to the stumps.Should he go or should he stay?
Apart from the country’s losses, Hayden’s future has been the major Australian issue over the New Year. Selectors, team-mates and diehard fans seem to be the only ones on Hayden’s side and he did little to secure an extended run during this match with scores of 31 and 39. With his wife Kellie standing to clap in the stands, Hayden left the field with a wipe of his eyes, a look around the ground and a brief bat raise. It was definitely his last Test innings in Australia, but the way Ricky Ponting waited by the fence until Hayden jogged off the ground, it could have beenhis final bat with the squad.And the new Graeme Smith is …
Morne Morkel. With Smith carrying a broken hand, South Africa needed another opener and Morkel was called to partner McKenzie. Morkel lasted two balls before becoming Doug Bollinger’s first Test wicket, with the “batsman” chipping to Mitchell Johnson at mid-on.Clarke sprints and limps
The pace of Australia’s batting increased dramatically after tea and Michael Clarke’s left hamstring struggled to keep up with the pace. After sprinting for a run he pulled up and Alex Kountouris, Australia’s physio, ran out for a quick consultation. Clarke resisted calling a runner and stayed until sweeping to Hashim Amla on 41. The short session after tea was good practice for the one-day component of the summer, with Michael Hussey swiping a fierce six to long-on from Makhaya Ntini.Closing time
Declarations are something Ponting hasn’t got the hang of in his five years as captain. He tends to bat on too long, but there have been memorable successes, such as the defeat of India here last year. He left his men expanding the target for 30 minutes after tea, posting 4 for 257for a lead of 375. Australia will have to wait another day to see if it was a good decision.Hare and tortoise
The batting was two paced in the first session, with Hayden and Ricky Ponting finding boundaries and Simon Katich struggling. At one stage Katich spent 39 balls on 17 before getting a single off an inside-edge. It came during a period when Jacques Kallis delivered six overs for one run. All five maidens were to Katich.And the new Graeme Smith is …
Morne Morkel. With Smith carrying a broken hand, South Africa needed another opener and Morkel was called to partner McKenzie. Morkel lasted two balls before becoming Doug Bollinger’s first Test wicket, with the “batsman” chipping to Mitchell Johnson at mid-on. “It was a risk worth taking,” the coach Mickey Arthur said. “He’s always likening himself to Matthew Hayden so we thought we’d take a look. It didn’t work, but I was very happy to get through with only his casualty.”

Andrew Symonds has said retirement is not on his immediate radar but he does believe he is entering the “final chapter” of his cricket career. Symonds, 33, is likely to line up for Queensland next week as he returns following knee surgery, if his comeback for his club side on the weekend goes to plan.He will be preparing for February’s tour of South Africa, where he will be without his great mate Matthew Hayden, who retired following the home Test series. Symonds took a trip to Hayden’s holiday house on Stradbroke Island to see how his friend was handling retirement.”I went over to Straddie and saw him a couple of days ago, he’s very relaxed,” Symonds told . However, Symonds said Hayden’s situation had not yet sparked retirement thoughts of his own.”The day that I am worn out either physically or mentally I will just say ‘that will do me’,” he said. “I haven’t put a time limit as to when I finish playing. Hopefully I can go on my terms rather than injury or lack of form. There’s only so many tokens left. Hopefully I can use them effectively and have a good end to my career.”The finish looked like it might have been forced upon him after his fishing trip in Darwin in August, when he was stood down from the national squad. He missed the tour of India but returned for the home summer and he is aiming to now look forward rather than back.”Hopefully I can leave the past behind me, we can make this a new chapter,” Symonds said. “I feel like this is the final chapter of my cricketing career coming up so hopefully I can play some good cricket, finish well and look back on my career which has been interesting but also very enjoyable.”Symonds will not bowl in his comeback state match as he keeps an eye on his knee. However he has ruled out giving up bowling in an effort to prolong his career as a batsman only.”I don’t play cricket like that,” he said. “I think I need to be able to bowl to be at my most effective, and I need to be mobile in the field. This has been a good time to freshen up again, clear the mind and give the body a rest, I feel good.”

Match facts

Friday, January 30
Start time 1.30pm (04.30 GMT)

The Big Picture

The similarities between this match and the Sydney Test are striking. Both turned into dead rubbers after South Africa claimed the series early and both provided opportunities for South Africa to claim the No. 1 ranking. Australia hope the parallels continue and they take a consolation win and hold onto top spot, as they did at the SCG. South Africa will rest some key players but neither team wants to give their opponent any extra confidence ahead of the return Test and one-day series in South Africa, which begins in a month.South Africa’s victory at Adelaide Oval on Australia Day gave them an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-game contest. It was not the outcome that most observers expected from a one-day side that entered the series as the underdogs, led by the inexperienced captain Johan Botha. Now they can jump Australia on the ICC rankings with another triumph in Perth. That task will be harder without their strike bowlers Dale Steyn and Makhaya Ntini, while Australia have added strength to their line-up after what Ricky Ponting described as their worst performance of the summer on Monday.

ODI form guide

Australia – LLWLW
South Africa – WWLWW

Team news

Australia have regained Michael Clarke, who was resting due to a thumb injury, and Nathan Bracken after his minor calf problem. It adds significant strength to both the batting and bowling departments, with Cameron White and Shaun Tait making way. Ricky Ponting insisted that Tait’s absence was not due to injury – he spent time off the field in the fourth ODI – but was simply a matter of managing his workload. It means they will need to rely on getting ten overs from the part-time spin of David Hussey and Michael Clarke.Australia 1 Shaun Marsh, 2 David Warner, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Clarke, 5 Michael Hussey, 6 David Hussey, 7 Brad Haddin (wk), 8 James Hopes, 9 Mitchell Johnson, 10 Nathan Bracken, 11 Ben Hilfenhaus.Steyn and Ntini are being rested at the tail-end of a tiring tour on which they have helped bowl South Africa to success in the Test and ODI formats. It means that the two left-arm fast men Wayne Parnell and Lonwabo Tsotsobe will make their one-day international debuts after appearing in one of the Twenty20 internationals. Jacques Kallis will also take a break, provided the batsman Vaughn van Jaarsveld proves his fitness after suffering a sprained ankle.South Africa (likely) 1 Herschelle Gibbs, 2 Hashim Amla, 3 AB de Villiers (wk), 4 JP Duminy, 5 Neil McKenzie, 6 Vaughn van Jaarsveld, 7 Albie Morkel, 8 Morne Morkel, 9 Johan Botha (capt), 10 Wayne Parnell, 11 Lonwabo Tsotsobe.

Watch out for …

Shaun Marsh entered the series under a form cloud but goes into the final game as the leading run scorer from either team with 213 at 53.25. His opening partner David Warner has captured the headlines but it is Marsh who has been more consistent in giving Australia a solid start. His technically correct, unfussy strokeplay has been welcome in an order where cross-bat slogs have been a little too frequent. It is also Marsh’s first international appearance at his home ground at the WACA, where he has spent the past few seasons making his name at domestic level.In the space of three weeks, Johan Botha has transformed from a captain who was struggling to control his Twenty20 side to a man who has led admirably in the 50-over format. Not only has he juggled his bowlers and placed his fields well, he has also led by example. Only Steyn and Ntini have taken more wickets in the series than Botha’s seven at 21.42. He has been easily South Africa’s most economical bowler and his variations in pace and flight have contributed to Australia’s middle-order problems.

Pitch & conditions

Once famous for its pace and bounce, the WACA has lost its spice for international matches in recent years and a flatter surface was exploited by South Africa on the final day of the Test in December. While much of southern Australia is suffering through a major heatwave with temperatures around 42 degrees, Perth has escaped the extreme weather and a top of 30 is forecast for Friday.

Stats and trivia

• The WACA is another venue where South Africa have had the better of Australia, winning two of the three ODIs between the teams.
• Australia’s recent record in Perth is not so bad though; only once in the past decade have they been beaten in a WACA one-day international.
• No batsman has scored a century so far this series. The best was AB de Villiers’ unbeaten 82 in Adelaide.

Quotes

“For us it’s about playing the best cricket we possibly can and hope the opposition feels we’re the best team in the world, but wherever we’re ranked, in my opinion, is irrelevant.”
Michael Clarke“We are looking long-term. We have to rest players, we are committed to that.”
Vinnie Barnes, South Africa’s bowling coach

Sachin Tendulkar has returned early from India’s tour of Sri Lanka, and will miss the Twenty20 international on Tuesday. Tendulkar left on Sunday night since he was not part of the Twenty20 squad, team manager Prakash Dixit confirmed.Tendulkar had a torrid time in the first three games of the tour. Opening the batting, he had scores of 5, 6 and 7, and fell leg-before in all three games. He was rested for the final two ODIs after India won the first three games to seal the series. The five-match contest finished 4-1 in India’s favour.Tendulkar has not been a regular member of the India’s teams for the 20-over format. His only Twenty20 international, in December 2006, was on the tour of South Africa, and in 2007 he had opted out of the ICC World Twenty20 along with fellow seniors Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly. The team, led by present captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, went on to win the tournament in South Africa.

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

Virender Sehwag set the tone with a typical fire-starting innings, andfine hands from Suresh Raina and Mahendra Singh Dhoni were alsoinstrumental as India eased to a comfortable 53-run victory [byDuckworth-Lewis] in a match twice interrupted by rain.India piled up a mammoth 273 for 4 from their 38 overs and then reduced New Zealand to 111for 4 before further rain left them the near-impossible task of scoring105 from 43 balls. Harbhajan Singh then picked up three wickets in fourballs as the match fizzled out and apart from Martin Guptill’saccomplished 64, there was little for New Zealand to take from McLeanPark.After a small mid-innings wobble, Raina and Dhoni added 110 from just 12.2overs to wrest the initiative. Daniel Vettori had brought about a lull in the proceedings after Ross Taylor’s stunning catch to send back Sehwag, butonce 40 came from the three overs of the batting Powerplay, there was noholding the Indians back.New Zealand had reason to rue some poor bowling, with Kyle Mills,returning from injury, especially culpable. Raina was in superb touch, andfull tosses from Mills were ruthlessly dealt with, usually with cleaves ofthe bat that sent the ball soaring over midwicket for six. When thebowlers tried to curb him by bowling wide of the stumps, Raina improvisedto squeeze-steer the ball backward of point for fours. With Dhoni rotatingthe strike cleverly at the other end, New Zealand had no answer.It wasn’t as though Dhoni was only the supporting act though. He pulledpowerfully on occasion, paddle-swept cleverly and also played one majesticwristy flick through midwicket off Ian Butler. With the regular bowlerspowerless to stop the onslaught, Vettori turned to Grant Elliott. Itworked, with Raina miscuing another big hit. But by then, the run-rate washovering around seven an over, and it went beyond that as Yusuf Pathan (20from just 10 balls) and Dhoni finished strongly.Sehwag had started the day with a clutch off fours off the wayward Mills,but the players were back inside the dressing rooms within 20 minutes asthe rain came down. By the time the game resumed, 24 overs in total had been lost,and India’s sense of urgency was apparent. Sachin Tendulkar pulled IainO’Brien for four, and then guided Mills through the vacant slip position,while Sehwag cut a six over point.Things were looking bleak for New Zealand before Ian Butler came on, playinghis first ODI in more than four years. It was an inspired move, withTendulkar getting the thinnest of edges through to Brendon McCullum. Thatdidn’t stop Sehwag though. He pulled Jacob Oram for four to get to hishalf-century from 37 balls and then clipped one through midwicket for fourmore. Even Butler wasn’t spared, with a cut for four and a swat throughsquare-leg as the 100 of the innings came up in just 14 overs.Vettori brought himself on immediately afterwards, but there was littlerespite. Dhoni cut one powerfully for four and then lofted one to thesightscreen, before Taylor’s dramatic intervention gave New Zealand asniff of a chance. When Yuvraj, bogged down by accurate bowling, followedsoon after – a victim of his own hesitation between the wickets – Indiacould have lost their way, but Dhoni and Raina hadn’t forgotten theircompasses or their range of strokes.New Zealand never got the stroke-filled start that they needed. ZaheerKhan commenced with a maiden over, but it was Praveen Kumar who struckthe crucial blow early on, having McCullum caught off the top edge at deepfine-leg. Jesse Ryder thumped him down to long-off for a four, butanother attempted heave only found Sehwag inside the circle.Only 23 runs came from the first eight overs of the Powerplay, but Taylor andGuptill then broke free with some attractive strokes. Taylor cutMunaf Patel for four, while Guptill lofted the ball sweetly down to thelong-on boundary. With singles and twos being taken cleverly, the Indianswere briefly rattled.Taylor greeted Yusuf with a cut for four behind point, but amiscued slog-sweep only found Sachin Tendulkar at short fine-leg. Guptillcontinued to work the ball around cleverly, but with the fours drying up,the game began to drift away. And the pressure eventually told whenRaina’s throw from the deep found Elliott just short of his ground whilegoing for a second run.The rain then returned, and with 10 overs lopped off the innings, therewas only time for New Zealand to go down swinging. Jacob Oram was caughtbehind off Yuvraj and Neil Broom stumped off Harbhajan. Guptill’sresistance then ended with a fine catch by Gautam Gambhir at deep midwicket.Vettori ensured that his team wouldn’t be bowled out, but that was littleconsolation on a day when New Zealand were second-best by a distance.

Barbados collapsed to an innings defeat against Leeward Islands at Crab Hill, with Kevin Stoute providing the sole resistance with a determined century. Seamers Gavin Tonge – who took 5 for 62 – and Tonito Willett hastened a Barbados defeat, taking nine wickets between them to run through the batting line-up. Leewards held the advantage for much of the match and started the day as favourites, having taken two wickets by stumps the previous day. Barbados had been asked to follow on, and began the day on a poor note, losing three quick wickets, all to Tonge, to slip to 56 for 5. Nikolai Charles and Stoute then added 110 on either side of lunch but when Charles was trapped in front by Willett, the end was near. The next five wickets fell for 27 as Leewards moved to third place in the table with 59 points. Stoute reached his maiden first-class century, but his effort was one of the few highlights for Barbados in a disappointing performance. “I am overwhelmed by my maiden first-class hundred,” he said. “I have been talking about it for two years now and it came true,” he said. “I am very happy. I am overwhelmed with my own personal performance, but still disappointed with the result of the game.”Combined Campuses and Colleges, buoyed by captain Floyd Reifer’s 13th first-class century, got themselves into a strong position against Jamaica in Kingston. They had conceded a lead of 58 in the first innings, but bounced back to end the day on 324 for 6 at stumps, 266 runs ahead. They survived a scare when offspinner Bevon Brown triggered a minor collapse to restrict CCC to 74 for 3, but Reifer received solid support from Jamal Smith, with whom he led the recovery with a 135-run partnership for the fourth wicket. After Smith fell for 46, also dismissed by Brown, Reifer built two fruitful stands, with Kurt Wilkinson and Chadwick Walton, to extend CCC’s lead and help them reach a comfortable position. Brown finished the day with 3 for 53, but CCC held the edge.Windward Islands staged a comeback against Trinidad and Tobago in St Vincent, restricting the opposition to 112 for 6 after conceding a 104-run lead. Chadwick Walton and Nelon Pascal took two wickets each to leave T&T reeling at 80 for 6 before Ravi Rampaul and Gibran Mohammed added 32 to prevent any further damage. Windwards began their day on the back foot on 134 for 4, but overnight batsmen Donwell Hector and Rawl Lewis helped them recover with a 108-run fifth-wicket stand. However, Hector fell agonizingly close to a century, caught at backward square by Imran Khan off an attempted pull. Lewis contributed a valuable 85 but Windward lost their next five wickets for 59 – Rampaul and Sherwin Ganga took four wickets each – to be bowled out for 257. However, their bowlers fought back well and with a current deficit of 216 with four T&T wickets left, the game is interestingly poised.

ScorecardI’m an allrounder now: Robert Key celebrates his first first-class wicket after bowling David Willey•Getty Images

It was questionable which was the bigger, more attractive, draw at the St Lawrence ground on Friday as Kent’s first ever game in the LV Championship second tier ended in a tedious stalemate.While the four-day game died a lingering death, so former Prime Minister and Surrey supporter John Major was giving a 40-minute lunchtime speech to 300 members of the Hoppers’ Tie Club annual lunch held in the Colin Cowdrey stand overlooking Kent’s headquarters.Fair to say tickets for both events were not in huge demand but at least Mr Major raised a few laughs and a ripple of applause, which was marginally more than more than could be said for the fare on show out in the middle where Northamptonshire grimly, and single-mindedly batted their way to a draw.Kent were hindered going into this final day when Azhar Mahmood pulled up in the warm-ups with a stomach strain and played no further part, heaping the onus onto an already weakened attack. On-loan Steffan Jones and Martin Saggers did their best, but a sublime batting pitch coupled with Northamptonshire’s determination not to give it away, meant that run-scoring, let alone entertainment, was few and far between.After 40 minutes’ Saggers finally dislodged night watchman David Lucas (13) with an away-swinger that he nibbled to the keeper then, after posting a 212-ball century with 11 fours, Stephen Peters went on the stroke of lunch after clipping a simple catch to short mid-wicket off James Tredwell.Incredibly, the second session proved even more tedious as the visitors lost two more wickets in adding just 64 runs in two hours. Riki Wessels nicked to slip to give Tredwell a third wicket then Saggers returned with the new ball to rearrange the stumps of his former Kent team-mate Andrew Hall for only three. As he did in his six-hour first innings knock, Nicky Boje dug in thereafter to frustrate the hosts for another 250 minutes. After surviving a big appeal for a bat-pad catch when on one, the South African left-hander went on to score 50 in three hours with only five boundaries.Kent captain Robert Key’s response was to bring himself on for a rare stint of leg-break bowling. With only career 23 overs behind him, Key allowed himself an unprecedented nine-over stint from the Nackington Road End during which he picked up his maiden first-class wicket when David Willey chopped on for 47.With Boje still unbeaten on 70, the teams shook hands on a draw at 4.50 pm by which time Mr Major and his security entourage had sped off toward London. Wisely, they had not bother to stay and watch the cricket.

Match facts

April 20, 2009
Start time 16.30pm (14.30GMT)Bangalore’s batsmen could do worse than take some tips from Rahul Dravid, who scored a cool 66 against Rajasthan•AFP

Big Picture

Midway through the second match on the opening day, it appeared Monday’s game would feature the two losers from Saturday. The stunning fightback from the Bangalore Royal Challengers means, though, that the Chennai Super Kings will be playing catch-up when the two teams clash in Port Elizabeth.It’ll also be the first game in that venue, so both teams will have to assess the conditions afresh and plan accordingly. The batting – apart from Rahul Dravid and, to some extent, Matthew Hayden – was disappointing for both teams, and the trick could well be to scale down the target score and instead keep wickets in hand at the start. Dravid handled the conditions expertly; now it’s for Jesse Ryder, Robin Uthappa and Ross Taylor to learn some lessons from that knock and tighten up.Chennai were patchy with the bat too, and unlike Bangalore, their bowlers didn’t run through the opposition line-up. These are still early days in the tournament, but another defeat will make Chennai the early laggards of IPL season 2, which would be a huge comedown from their heroics last year.

Player form guide

Bangalore: Dravid and Anil Kumble were the obvious form players from the first game, but all the Bangalore bowlers did their jobs. The onus is now on the batsmen to adapt to the conditions and ensure that a 17 for 3 situation doesn’t happen again.Chennai: Hayden didn’t show much rustiness, while MS Dhoni fought hard towards the end, but the rest of the batting needs to step up. The bowling was inconsistent too, with Andrew Flintoff letting the team down in the final overs.

Watch out for

Steyn v Hayden: Dale Steyn had a hand to play in hastening Hayden’s retirement, dismissing him three times for 58 runs in 107 deliveries in the Test series in Australia. Hayden will want some revenge, and he’ll have a fair chance in a format that is far more loaded in favour of batsmen.

Friendly fire

Pietersen v Flintoff: The two England big guns will be pitted against each other, and expect sparks to fly when Flintoff comes racing in to bowl to Kevin Pietersen.

Team news

Bangalore have little reason to change the combination that worked the magic against Rajasthan: the bowling attack was fabulous, and the batting, while disappointing, has too much class at the top to warrant a change after one failure.Bangalore Royal Challengers (probable) 1 Jesse Ryder, 2 Robin Uthappa (wk), 3 Ross Taylor, 4 Kevin Pietersen (capt), 5 Rahul Dravid, 6 Virat Kohli, 7 Balachandra Akhil, 8 Praveen Kumar, 9 R Vinay Kumar, 10 Anil Kumble, 11 Dale Steyn.Chennai will probably include Albie Morkel for the unimpressive Jacob Oram, while Muttiah Muralitharan could come in to beef up the bowling attack.Chennai Super Kings (probable) 1 Parthiv Patel, 2 Matthew Hayden, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 Andrew Flintoff, 5 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 6 S Badrinath, 7 Albie Morkel, 8 Joginder Sharma, 9 Manpreet Gony, 10 L Balaji, 11 Muttiah Muralitharan.

Head-to-head record

The two teams split the matches they played against each other last season, and the margins were almost identical too: Chennai won the first won game by 13 runs, while Bangalore won by a 14-run margin in the return clash.

A year after giving their squad a significant overhaul, South Australia have kept a steady course for 2009-10 with few changes to their playing group. The fast bowlers Chris Duval and Matthew Weeks have been added to the senior squad, while the opening batsman Tom Plant has been axed.Weeks, 26, returned to South Australia’s starting line-up last summer after a three-year absence. Duval is the only addition from outside the state, returning to his original side having spent the past four seasons with Tasmania.The Redbacks now have three Cricket Australia-contracted players with Graham Manou and Callum Ferguson joining Shaun Tait on the national list. That opened up places for James Smith and Jake Haberfield to be promoted from the state’s rookie list and both now hold full deals.The rookie list has taken on a new look with only Michael Cranmer, Cameron Francis and Kane Richardson named at this stage. Of last season’s rookies, Jake Brown, Andy Delmont and Jason Donnelly have slipped out of the group.None of the changes are major and it is a far cry from South Australia’s off-field dealings last year, when they raided four players from New South Wales and Victoria in addition to signing Pakistan’s Younis Khan. All states must finalise their round one offers by next Friday prior to the player transfer pool opening.South Australia squad Cullen Bailey, Cameron Borgas, Daniel Christian, Mark Cleary, Tom Cooper, Mark Cosgrove, Dan Cullen, Chris Duval, Callum Ferguson (Cricket Australia contract), Peter George, Jake Haberfield, Daniel Harris, Michael Klinger, Graham Manou (CA), Aaron O’Brien, Gary Putland, Paul Rofe, James Smith, Shaun Tait (CA), Matthew Weeks, Allan Wise.Rookies Michael Cranmer, Cameron Francis, Kane Richardson.

The West Indies selectors named an unchanged 13-man squad for the two final games of the four-match series against India, to be played at the Beausejour Stadium in St Lucia.West Indies and India split the first double-header at Sabina Park in Jamaica. While India clinched a high-scoring thriller first up by 20 runs, the hosts stormed to an eight-wicket victory to draw level.The third ODI will be played on Friday while the fourth is scheduled for Sunday.Squad: Chris Gayle (capt), Denesh Ramdin (wk), Lionel Baker, Darren Bravo, Dwayne Bravo, Sulieman Benn, David Bernard, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Narsingh Deonarine, Runako Morton, Ravi Rampaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Jerome Taylor