Allround Kallis inspires series win

After slugging it out for four games South Africa finally delivered the knock-out punch in the deciding, fifth one-day international to consign Pakistan to a 3-2 series loss in Dubai.

Twice South Africa have faltered and allowed Pakistan back into the series but this time Jacques Kallis's allround prowess - first making 83 to help set an imposing 317 and then taking three crucial wickets - helped seal a comprehensive 57-run win.

What looked like just another one-day series played out to anonymity in the desert after the opening match, developed into a classic tussle as two flawed, vastly contrasting sides could not be separated until the last.

Pakistan's preparation for the finale could not have been more chaotic as their wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider disappeared on the morning of the match, setting off to London in a cloud of mystery. Crisis is hardwired into Pakistan cricket but even by their standards this was bizarre.

Given the circumstances most other teams would have crumbled and though Pakistan managed to compete they were under pressure from the off as fifties from Hashim Amla, Kallis and AB de Villiers laid the foundations for a late surge from JP Duminy that carried South Africa to 317 and out of sight.

The Pakistan openers did their best to set up a contest before Kallis ripped through the top order, taking three wickets in as many overs, to leave Pakistan with a mountain to climb. Despite a characteristic flurry from Shahid Afridi and a well-crafted 60 from Umar Akmal, who also kept wicket in Haider's absence, Pakistan never quite threatened to pull off a mammoth chase.

Credit must go to Kallis but the tone was set, as per usual, by Amla. He continued his phenomenal run of form with a boundary-leaden half-century. All season he has shown one-day batting extends beyond barrel-chested power and he passed 1000 ODI runs for the calendar year as he punished Pakistan's new-ball pairing and raced to fifty from 33 balls.

If Amla's style is poetic, Kallis is altogether more prosaic. Happy to ease along in the slipstream he collected singles and doubles with ease and after Amla's dismissal, chipping tamely to long-off, he shared a 121-run stand with de Villiers.

Neither de Villiers nor Kallis were particularly expansive but they barely raised a sweat as the waltzed along close to a run a ball. Abdur Rehman did his best to check the rate with an impressive spell of brisk, accurate left-arm spin but at 219 for 2 in the 38th over, Pakistan were staring down the barrel.

They recovered, momentarily, with three wickets for nine runs in 14 deliveries as South Africa ignored the Batting Powerplay and lost both set batsmen, and Colin Ingram in a hurry. Yet, just as Pakistan's fortunes looked to have picked up JP Duminy found his best range to crown the innings with a flourish.

Sixty-four runs came off the last five overs as Duminy laid into the wheezing Shoaib Akhtar and Wahab Riaz. Duminy looks to have recovered his poise this season after a chastening experience last year and will be a key man in similar conditions at the World Cup.

The chase always looked out of reach but Pakistan were gifted an enterprising start by Shahzaib Hasan and Mohammad Hafeez, who added 81 in the opening 12 overs. It was Pakistan's best opening stand of the series and South Africa were visibly relieved when Kallis burst through.

After being taken for 11 in his opening over Kallis struck in each of his next three. First Shahzaib skewed a drive to find Morkel at mid-on, before Younis Khan gloved a short ball down the leg side.

If his wicket magnified the difficulty of Pakistan's task Mohammad Yousuf's tame fall two overs later rammed home South Africa's advantage. Yousuf only landed in Dubai yesterday but replaced Asad Shafiq at No. 4 and duly fell quickly, guiding a length ball off the face to de Villiers.

The slide continued when Fawad Alam feathered a rapid short ball from Steyn to fall for 1. In all four wickets had fallen for 19 runs in 33 balls to rip the stuffing out of Pakistan's reinforced middle order.

After Hafeez fell shortly after reaching his half-century Afridi and Akmal briefly threatened a recovery. The required rate had climbed but both found the boundary regularly enough to keep South Africa on edge until Afridi ran down the wicket, and straight past a flighted delivery from Robin Peterson to give de Villiers his first stumping in ODI cricket.

Peterson came into the side in place of the big-hitting David Miller and justified his selection with an impressive display of left-arm spin. Twice he beat Afridi early on before nailing his man for 24. Together with Abdul Razzak, Akmal tried to engineer a miracle but slapped a Steyn full toss straight to Smith at cover to all but end the resistance.

Fittingly it was Peterson who finished the job, castling Shoaib to leave Pakistan still in search of a ODI series win against South Africa.

Nothing beats playing at home

As kids we all grow up with dreams such as scoring a century or destroying the opposition with the ball. An essential part of these dreams is the venue.

My first experience of playing in an international ground was at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. It was an Under-16 match but it was a phenomenal experience. To play in a ground which you see only on television, where Test matches are held, was plain exciting.

But nothing beats playing in the place where you grew up. You might ask, what is so special about playing at home? For me it is the familiarity.

Having said that, after having played at all the venues in India for more than a decade, many of them multiple times, the feeling is relative. Still, playing in a place where I was born and brought up, playing in front of my well-wishers, my mentor, my family, friends - to play in front of these people who encouraged me and were instrumental in me becoming what I am today is a very special feeling. I hadn't experienced that feeling all these years and so I was a little hurt, but now I can't complain.

The first time I watched a big match live in Hyderabad was in 1981, between South Zone and Keith Fletcher's England, Fateh Maidan (Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium), which was just a five-minute walk from my house. I sat with my brother and the family of my neighbour, who was a member of the Fateh Maidan Club, in the stands. A few years later I watched an India-Pakistan one-dayer from the corporate box because my grandfather was the chairman of Andhra Pradesh Sports Council. Those were the two big matches I watched live before I made my international debut.

I was always a regular at Ranji and domestic matches, right from my Under-13 and Under-15 days. I remember, one time Bombay came to Hyderabad for a Ranji Trophy match played at the Gymkhana grounds. It was the first time I saw Sachin Tendulkar in person. He was the talk of the country, having made his international debut so young. We kids were practising in the adjacent nets and I managed to take a peek at him and other stars like Dilip Vengsarkar, Sanjay Manjrekar, Ravi Shastri, Mohammad Azharuddin and Arshad Ayub. They were players you normally only saw in newspaper pictures or on TV, and suddenly to see them in person was exciting. That excitement has always stayed inside me. It used to give me a thrill to be in the Fateh Maidan. Going there and soaking in the atmosphere contributed to my dreams of playing for the country one day.

Baba Krishan Mohan, my uncle and mentor, has always been an avid fan of cricket. He used to watch a lot of cricket and had seen West Indies and Tony Greig's England play in Hyderabad when he was a youngster. There were a lot of cricket pictures in his house and he had a lot of stories to narrate while I was growing up. He evoked a hunger in me and helped me achieve my goals.

For a visitor Hyderabad and Secunderabad might be twin cities, two different places. But there were no differences in the cricket in both cities. Like Mumbai has Shivaji Park, for us it is the Parade grounds, on which there are multiple matches happening simultaneously. During my days there were 14 wickets and it was chaos all around.

For me, the two most important grounds in addition to the Parade one were the Gymkhana ground and the St John's Academy. I was groomed here and realised my talent here, and it was here that I became the cricketer I am today.

The Uppal Stadium is new even to me, a local, but I'm more than eager to perform here. It is a brilliant stadium, and having played around the globe I have no doubt it is one of the best. Shiv bhai [Shivlal Yadav] has done a lot to set up this world-class venue, which has all the amenities. During the IPL games here, overseas players asked why the stadium was not a Test venue yet.

This match will be a test for both the venue and myself. I hope the crowds will come in in big numbers to watch. On the personal front, I have some unfinished business. Last time I played an international match in Hyderabad, it was against the same opponent, New Zealand. It was November 15. I had walked in to bat towards the end of the innings after Sachin and [Virender] Sehwag had scored a big opening partnership. I got out in single digits. But I have got a double-century at Uppal [224 against Rajasthan in the 2008-09 season] and I hope I can bring the same form to this Test. After the exciting draw in Ahmedabad it is an important Test match in the context of the series. If I can contribute in a win, it would be really special.

Raina replaces Yuvraj in BCCI's top contracts list

Suresh Raina has replaced Yuvraj Singh in the Grade A level - the highest - of the BCCI's list of central contracts for 2010-11. Virat Kohli, M Vijay and Pragyan Ojha have moved up to Grade B, while Rohit Sharma has been demoted to C. RP Singh and Munaf Patel, who were previously in Grade B, have not been offered contracts.

The board has made several changes to the structure, reducing the total number of contracted players from 41 to 24, and doing away with Grade D. The annual retainers have been increased from Rs. 60 lakh to Rs. 1 crore ($135,594 to $225,990) for Grade A and from Rs 40 lakh to Rs. 50 lakh ($90,396 to $112,995) for Grade B. The fees for category C remain at Rs. 25 lakhs ($56,498).

Yuvraj has had a forgettable 2010, with indifferent form and fitness dogging him through one of the toughest phases of the career. He was disappointing at the World Twenty20 in the West Indies and was subsequently dropped for the Asia Cup but returned for the Tests in Sri Lanka. In the first Test, he scored 52 and 5 in Galle, before missing the second with fever. He was declared fit to play in the third but was passed over from the final XI in favour of Raina, who had replaced him for the second Test and scored a century on debut.

Gautam Gambhir has, on the other hand, been more fortunate and has retained his Grade A classification despite an indifferent year - he has missed three of India's last six Tests with injuries, and has bagged ducks in the second innings in each of other three. Rahul Dravid, who has been out of India's limited-overs plans since the 2009 Champions Trophy, also features in the A category, despite his recent dip in Test form.

Karnataka seamers Abhimanyu Mithun and Vinay Kumar, who forced their way into the national side through impressive shows in the 2009-10 first-class season, have been added to Grade C, along with Cheteshwar Pujara, who scored a fluent half-century against Australia on Test debut.

Dinesh Karthik, who has been in and out of the one-day side as a back-up wicketkeeper and a make-shift opener, has been axed from the contracts list, along with Ajinkya Rahane, Manoj Tiwary and Dhawal Kulkarni. Shikhar Dhawan, Abhishek Nayar and Sudeep Tyagi also find themselves out of contracts.

Grade A: Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan

Grade B: Yuvraj Singh, Ishant Sharma, Ashish Nehra, Praveen Kumar, Virat Kohli, M Vijay, Pragyan Ojha

Grade C: Sreesanth, Amit Mishra, R Ashwin, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja, Abhimanyu Mithun, Vinay Kumar

Hyderabad awaits Test action

New Zealand started the first Test at Ahmedabad short of confidence and a touch unsure about a few of their players. They ended it on a high, but a couple of concerns remain: Can the opener Tim McIntosh, if he is picked, prove to the world that he is not a walking wicket? Will BJ Watling get some runs at No.3? How will the batsmen handle a track that supposedly has more bounce? The Ahmedabad pitch was flat and the middle order cashed in. Ross Taylor expects the track at Uppal, hosting its first Test match, will have a bit more for the spinners. Hyderabad has hosted three Tests before this, all against New Zealand, at the multi-purpose Lal Bahadur stadium.

India went to Ahmedabad with a couple of worries - the batting form of Gautam Gambhir and Rahul Dravid, and the bowling form of the spin twins Harbhajan Singh and Pragyan Ojha. Dravid scored a hundred in the first innings, but Gambhir and the spinners didn't have much to smile about on a batsmen-friendly track. All of them practised hard in the nets in Uppal. As ever, Dravid had a long net session. Gary Kirsten fired down short balls from a tennis racquet and Dravid spent his time swaying away or riding the bounce.

The conditions are slightly damp as there was some rain earlier in the week and It will be interesting to see whether the strip will provide some seam movement on the first day. Some have said that there might be bit more spin on this new pitch but Uppal has traditionally produced batsmen-friendly surfaces. We will have to wait and see how this particular track turns out.

Various Moments Of Ind VS NZ Serize

A second wind for Dravid?

By playing with a bat Michael Hussey called "three metres wide", and doing so in his 38th year, Sachin Tendulkar doesn't only continue to give people a hard time, he gives hope to many others that if you stay around long enough, a second wind is possible. Of course it assumes that you will be picked in that period - some teams cull ruthlessly while others enforce temporary bans - and be fit enough to scour the horizon for that second coming.

I thought of that as I watched Rahul Dravid struggle his way through his first hundred balls in Ahmedabad. My mind, so full of admiration for a great cricketer, was willing him on, but younger, more irreverent, observers on my Twitter feed were calling for his head. Apart from a little purple patch in 2009, Dravid has been averaging in the thirties over three years (interestingly these numbers are very similar to those Tendulkar generated during his lean phase in the middle of this decade) and didn't always look like the great player he is.

Surely on a cruelly flat deck and against an attack that wasn't likely to scare a top team, he could have batted like the player we knew, or indeed like the player we saw after the shackles he had imposed on himself were broken and a century appeared. Or was it that Dravid was building bunkers around him, creating defences against every possible dismissal? Was he getting so caught up with survival that not getting out would seem a success?

A couple of days earlier I heard Sourav Ganguly say, on a news channel, that as a player moves past the mid-thirties he loses his confidence far more than he does his ability. And I wondered if that was the case with Dravid, surrounded as he is by young batsmen, who admire him but challenge him nonetheless. Was he so increasingly aware of his mortality, I wondered, that he was guarding himself against every possibility?

Sometimes players, like managers, can analyse in such detail that they end up thinking of weaknesses that may or may not exist. Batsmen can start preparing for every possible way in which they can get out. As patients get older, they worry about infections cropping up from just about anywhere, where in younger days they might have drunk water out of a tap at a railway station, or jumped out of a tree oblivious to injury. Batsmen can therefore start focusing too much on not getting out rather than on scoring runs.

Indeed, watching cricket in that phase you couldn't help thinking that one player, Virender Sehwag, was looking for an opportunity to score, while another, Dravid, was searching for safety. One seemed to enjoy being out in the middle, like a kid might on a rollercoaster, while the other was gritting his teeth like he was preparing for an assignment on the implications of Bernoulli's Principle. (And given that the passage of a ball through air tends to be governed by the work of the aforementioned gentleman, he probably wasn't too far away anyway!)

Having said that, Dravid could well counter the point saying that he has addressed every match the same way in the last 14 years, and has an extraordinary body of work to support his thesis; that on another day Sehwag might look flippant and the gravitas that Dravid exudes might be more reassuring; that being a man of erudition, a deep thinker and an analyst, has always worked for him.

As it turned out, a century duly arrived, one that took him past Bradman's 29 - once considered as unattainable as a four-minute mile was - at a strike rate better than that achieved over his career. The second half of his innings, in terms of balls faced, produced 80% of his runs. The certainty that Dravid exuded through a glittering career was back, the feet had started to glide, and the bat was searching for runs where it had been intent on guarding the wicket.

Did the confidence that Ganguly was talking about return? Did a voice tell him that putting money in a locker was not much good in a bull market? And will this century, and the accompanying confidence, lead to the second wind, the kind Tendulkar has shown?

I do not know. But what I do know is that beyond a point, the more you analyse, the more you budget for failure. Now that may be good for Obama's security entourage but not necessarily so for quality cricketers.

I will speak in detail later' - Zulqarnain Haider

Pakistan wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider, who went missing in Dubai on Monday, has resurfaced in London and said he will explain the reasons for his mysterious flight from the UAE later. Haider was scheduled to play the fifth ODI against South Africa but had disappeared from the Pakistan team's hotel on the morning of the game without informing the team management.

"I have come here [London] on my own expenses on a one month visa. I will be staying at a hotel on my own expenses," Haider told Geo, a leading Pakistani news channel, after reportedly spending nearly four hours with immigration authorities at Heathrow. "I will speak in detail on the reasons for my decision to leave Dubai and come to London later on."

The PCB's legal adviser Tafazzul Rizvi said Haider was in breach of his contract but the board was "concerned about this whole situation." "He will definitely face an inquiry and disciplinary action whenever he contacts us," Rizvi said.

Rizvi was also quoted by the Guardian as saying that it was too early to involve all of Pakistani cricket. "This is just the act of one individual, and it's not a sensible act," he said. "Even he had threats against him, he should have informed the team security officer."

The drama began shortly before Pakistan were due to play South Africa in the deciding match of their ODI series, when it transpired that Haider had not travelled with the squad to the ground. The first indication that something was wrong came from a cryptic message left as a status update on the player's Facebook page. "Leaving Pakistan cricket because get bad msg fr 1 man fr lose the match in last game." The "last match" reference is possibly to the fourth ODI of the series, a closely-fought thriller in which Haider's unbeaten 19 took Pakistan to victory with one wicket and one ball to spare.

As the day wore on, the situation became more confusing. A TV reporter for Geo said that he had received a text message from Haider earlier on Monday in which the player asked for security for his family and indicated that he might fly to the UK. Television footage showed him arriving at Heathrow later in the day, confirming an earlier PCB statement that they had information he was on his way to the UK.

The PCB, which has set up an inquiry into the issue, said it was working with the ICC's anti-corruption unit following indications that his disappearance could be linked to his performance during the current ODI series against South Africa.