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Cape Cobras captain Andrew Puttick confirmed that Herschelle Gibbs opted out due to the security scare which preceded their game against Victoria in Bangalore. The game was delayed after an Under-22 cricketer from Jammu and Kashmir, staying at the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) complex in the Chinnaswamy Stadium, was detained in connection with the suspected presence of explosives at the venue. He was subsequently released after questioning, and the authorities gave the go-ahead for the match to take place. “It was his personal decision,” Puttick said of Gibbs’ decision to stay back. “He felt he was not mentally up for the game after what happened.”It was not a surprise that on a day when a security scare delayed the game, not one player was asked anything about cricket in the post-match press conference. The game was a relatively dull affair with Victoria unable to play at their optimum level, and all questions revolved around how the scare affected the teams’ preparation.Puttick said it was left to the individual players to make up their mind about whether to play. “There was lots of confusion initially,” he said. “It was a really a difficult situation as there were lots of reports flying around. As for Gibbs, we as a team respected the decision. If you are not comfortable, then there is no use playing.”Cape Cobras didn’t let Gibbs’ absence affect them, and were mentally switched on for the game from the first over where they picked two key wickets. “I am really proud about how the guys turned up today and were able to focus quickly,” Puttick said. “I didn’t have to say anything special to the team; maybe we all thought what more can happen, ‘let’s just go and play the game.'”Cape Cobras coach, Shukri Conrad, added that there were a few team meetings before it was agreed that a majority would play.Victoria’s captain Cameron White didn’t directly blame the episode for the below-par performance, but said it wasn’t the ideal preparation. “We don’t know whether it affected our performance or not. But it wasn’t ideal,” he said. “We didn’t even know whether we were going to ground at one point. We just got the news from the TV initially but were quickly given a briefing later.Obviously we were reluctant to come at one point of time but once our security company gave us the full details and assured us about the security we decided to come to ground. We will have sit down in the next couple of days and see whether we let the incident affect our focus.”

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is likely to propose that the ICC conduct a formal review of the future of the 50-over format after the 2011 World Cup to protect the ODI structure amid the rise of Twenty20 cricket, with a 40-over format topping the list of suggested alternatives.The review was discussed informally at a strategy session in London during the ICC conference in June and has come into focus once again after the ECB announced on Thursday that it was switching to a 40-over domestic format from 2010. No formal decision on a format change has been taken at the ICC level but members expect England, which has long been looking at ways to reinvigorate the shorter form, to take the lead in proposing an official review soon. South Africa is the other major nation that does not have a 50-over competition in domestic cricket.However, any review or proposed change will have to take into consideration the ICC’s current commercial and broadcast deals – primarily with ESPN – which run until 2015 and include the 50-over World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. But if the ICC board agrees on a revamped ODI structure and gets its partners and sponsors on board, the format change is expected to happen sooner.”The ICC has event, commercial and broadcast contracts in place up to and including the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2015,” an ICC spokesperson said. “Those contracts, including host agreements with New Zealand and Australia, are all based on the 2015 ICC World Cup taking place as per ODI regulations. If the ECB wishes to table suggested changes to those contracts then that would have to go through due process with the ICC board and also, if there were to be a change of format, with the ICC’s commercial and broadcast partners. There is nothing to stop members experimenting with other formats but the ICC is committed to three viable formats of the game – Tests, ODIs and T20Is.”England and England Lions will continue to play 50-over cricket internationally until the ICC review is complete, the ECB said. In fact, a sense of where ODI cricket is headed has been given by the ECB’s new domestic competition that will be held mainly on Sunday afternoons. “The Powerplays and fielding restrictions will be the same as per international cricket but the match will be played over 40 overs,” the ECB said.Giles Clarke, the ECB chairman, also pointed to the fact that “the leading one-day team in world cricket – South Africa – does not mirror 50 overs at domestic level and, provided Powerplays and fielding restrictions were the same as the international format, the skills required were very similar.”A 40-over plan had also figured prominently in a speech delivered by James Sutherland, the chief executive of Cricket Australia, before the ICC Members’ Forum last year. “The introduction of batting team Powerplays is a good move, but more questions need to be asked,” Sutherland said. “The one-day game may actually be improved as a 40-over game; perhaps two innings per team; perhaps a different number of players – 12-14; perhaps the 30-metre circle size could be different – how would this change the game?”Sutherland said that ICC members need to adopt a more proactive stance in experimenting and trialling possible innovations for the one-day game.”The financial success of the modern game has been built on ODI cricket,” he said. “Within this current bundle of commercial rights, our short-term future includes pinnacle World Cup events in 2011 and 2015; we owe it to ourselves to ensure that ODI cricket continues to be a popular force in the game. At both ICC, and at member level, we must vigorously protect one-day cricket and generously promote it. It has given us too much to deserve less.”The ICC has already launched efforts to boost the existing ODI format by unveiling a shorter and leaner version of the Champions Trophy that will start on September 22 in South Africa. The two-venue event will host the top eight ODI teams across 14 days.

Division Two

John Maunders compiled an unbeaten 142 against his former club and shared in an unbroken fourth-wicket stand of 159 with Tom Westley, as Essex took command on the first day against Leicestershire at Chelmsford. Alastair Cook failed to take advantage of the benign conditions, and a very tame attack, falling to Wayne White for a disappointing 31. And White picked up Varun Chopra’s wicket soon after when he was caught behind for 13. Matt Walker began promisingly but, like Cook, failed to capitalise and was trapped in front attempting to sweep. Westley provided the most fluent batting of the day as Essex began to fight back, cruising to a neat half-century from 74 balls, though he nearly lost his wicket twice to James Benning, one of which was dropped by Paul Nixon at slip. Maunders was mostly untroubled, reaching his hundred from 223 balls, though was troubled a couple of times against Jigar Naik. The pair remain unbeaten going into the second day.A century from Stephen Peters stabilised Northamptonshire’s shaky start against Glamorgan on a rain-affected first day at Northampton. His unbeaten 124 came from 140 balls, after both Rob White and Alex Wakely were dismissed cheaply within the first six overs, leaving score at 16 for 2. White was brilliantly caught by Gareth Rees at silly mid-on off James Harris without scoring and Wakely’s off stump was knocked back by Garnett Kruger for 5. The recovery, led by Peters, was aided by Riki Wessels (39) and Andrew Hall (48 not out). Peters did however inadvertently help to dismiss his captain Nicky Boje, as he was run-out by Harris who deflected the ball onto the stumps. Northamptonshire closed on 224 for 4 before rain ended play early.

Division One

Click here for John Ward’s report from a rainy Scarborough.2nd dayClick here for George Dobell’s report from Worcester.

Bangladesh celebrated their 200th ODI with their first ODI series win against West Indies, and Shakib Al Hasan, their stand-in captain, yet again played a major role in helping them achieve that feat. “I can’t explain the feeling,” Shakib, who was named Man of the Match for his crucial 65, said at the end of the game. “The boys have tried their best. The team has been supportive throughout the series, and so have the support staff, and we have done well.”Shakib was involved in two crucial partnerships in Bangladesh’s chase of a challenging 275. He added 74 for the fourth wicket with Mohammad Ashraful, who, like Shakib, scored his second successive half-century. A 48-run stand with wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim followed, which appeared to have sealed the game for Bangladesh before a flurry of wickets threatened to deprive them of victory.West Indies’ performance marked a major improvement from their previous game where the spinners had proved their undoing. “This was a good win, though,” Shakib said. “It was much tougher. They really tested us, and they played our spinners really well.”The hosts were able to overcome the spin threat, thanks largely to a maiden ODI century from Travis Dowlin, who was involved in a steady stand of 62 with Devon Smith for the third wicket, and then opened up to help smash 98 in the last ten overs with support from the lower order. West Indies had thrown Bangladesh the challenge of chasing down their highest score for an ODI win, and Floyd Reifer, the captain, thought his team had managed enough. “We thought that 274 was a brilliant score,” Reifer said. “Travis played really, really well for his hundred.”West Indies came into the game with five bowlers, and problems with two of them affected them at the death. Kemar Roach conceded 18 runs in the 42nd over, the first of the batting Powerplay, and bowled his second beamer of the game, which sent him out of the attack. The wicketkeeper Devon Thomas, as a result, had to step in to complete his spell while Darren Sammy bowled with an injured hamstring.”We knew coming into the game with five bowlers we were taking a risk, and it did not help that we lost three of our bowlers at critical stages,” Reifer said. “But I thought we played well and put in a big effort. There have been a lot of positives, which the guys can take from this series. It’s a young team, and we all need to be patient with them.”The teams head to St Kitts for the final ODI and a Twenty20 international to round off the tour.

Considering India’s dismal record in one-day games against SouthAfrica in that country, a win and a defeat against them after twomatches in the current competition would seem to be a minor triumph.In 1992-93, India lost the seven-game one-day series by five matchesto two. In the Standard Bank triangular series five seasons ago, theIndians were beaten by South Africa in all three group matches andthen went down to the hosts in the final. Wednesday’s result was thusthe first Indian victory over South Africa in that country sinceDecember 19, 1992, when they had the consolation prize of winning thelast match of that series in East London.

If there is one immediate lesson that is brought home by the verdictat Centurion, it is that India has to play to its strengths. Even inone dayers, though it may not be as pronounced as it is in Tests, thestrength of the Indian attack lies in its spin bowling. And now thatthe country has two worldclass spinners in Harbhajan Singh and AnilKumble, it would be better to play both, along with two seamers, andleave the remaining 10 overs to the likes of Tendulkar, Sehwag,Ganguly and Yuvraj. Come to think of it, Sehwag did not do too badly,but why was Yuvraj not given the ball, one wonders.It was the combination of Harbhajan and Kumble that had the SouthAfrican batsmen all tied up in knots on Wednesday. However gallant theIndian seam bowlers may be, Srinath, Prasad and Agarkar have theirlimitations. In any case, the South Africans clearly have few problemsplaying them. But as was proved in the second game, they can beshackled while trying to negotiate good spin bowling. Granted thewicket had something in it and was not as flat as the Wanderersstadium pitch was during the first game last week. But on any surface,India must play both their front-line spinners to stand a chance.That said, it must also be stated that, despite Wednesday’s result,consistency does not seem to be the hallmark of this Indian team.Unable to defend a total of 279 then and defending a total of 233 now,one wonders what lies next. Up in the clouds one day and then down inthe dumps just as quickly, this Indian side excites and exasperates.The excitement level was high during the time they batted in the firstgame, and Ganguly and Tendulkar dished out some sterling stuff. Theexasperating part came only in the second half of the game, thanks towayward bowling. But the batsmen too have to cop part of the blame,for, after the kind of dream start given by the openers, a total of300 should have been notched up. Unfortunately, the middle orderbotched it up.I was never happy with Shiv Sundar Das’ selection. I argued that he isthe one specialist Test opener we have and his precious gifts shouldbe preserved for the longer game. His superb technique is bound tosuffer thanks to the exposure to slam-bang cricket. Moreover, the teammanagement just does not know where to fit him in. In the first matchhe went in at No 7, but in the second he was sent in at No 3. It isthis kind of yo-yo treatment that has, over the years, nipped thecareer of many budding batsmen. Reetinder Singh Sodhi, a player ofconsiderable promise, could be played instead; that would also giveGanguly an additional bowling option.Overall, however, the Indians can look back with some satisfaction attheir performance in the tournament so far. But even with Kenya justthere to make up the numbers ­ though one must guard against overconfidence ­ there is still plenty of work to be done. Consistency isthe key word. The team now has three batsmen who have exceeded 5000runs in one-day internationals, two bowlers who have crossed the 200-wicket mark, and exciting young talent in Harbhajan, Yuvraj, Sodhi andSehwag. Agarkar has always been an exemplary one-day cricketer,whatever his lamentable record in Tests, and Deep Dasgupta seems to beshaping well. The nucleus of a really fine side is very much there ­perhaps even one good enough to take the title. Now if only theplayers perform up to potential.

Through two Tests, three one-day internationals and a Twenty20 practice match, West Indies had played the role of Peter McNeeley to England’s Mike Tyson. Each crushing bodyblow took with it confidence and reputation, and if John Dyson had at his disposal a white towel, it would presumably have sailed over the ropes sometime around the third ODI.Then came the shot at redemption. Already million-dollar babies after their Stanford payday, West Indies positioned themselves for a shot at a recognised belt with impressive World Twenty20 victories over tournament heavyweights India and Australia, and stoic defeats to title contenders Sri Lanka and South Africa. Standing in their way were the bruisers of England. Rocky films should pine for such a plot.In the end, as with all good rags-to-riches tales, victory was both sweet and hard-earned. All but written off after their disastrous summer campaign – which, for good measure, included one final nine-wicket thumping to England in a pre-tournament 20-over warm-up – the Windies defied critics and opponents alike to qualify for the World Twenty20 semi-finals with a nerve-shredding victory over their recent conquerers.After losing five early wickets in a rain-reduced run-chase – each a standing-eight count of its own – it was left to Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan to guide West Indies past England’s revised target of 80 with a composed stand of 37 from 20 balls. The veteran duo have been called upon to dig the Windies out of many a jam over the years, but their recent Twenty20 form – 71 runs in a combined eight matches prior to Monday – made this pursuit that little less predictable, that little more special.”After the disaster of the tour here in England we wanted to give the supporters something to cheer about,” Chris Gayle said. “It was good to see them in the stands cheering and jumping. We’re trying to entertain and at the same time we’re trying to get a few victories under our belts. We looked really happy and we’re just trying to finish off on a high. I’m really proud of the guys and the way they’ve gone about it right through the tournament. It’s been a long, hard summer for us and to be in the semi-finals is brilliant.”The signs looked ominous for West Indies when, barely a minute before the coin toss, Fidel Edwards was struck down with back pain while warming up. Those concerns were compounded when Ravi Bopara and Kevin Pietersen combined for a spirited second-wicket stand of 56, raising the expectations and volume of The Oval faithful.Momentum began to lurch back the Windies’ way when Lendl Simmons, fast emerging as a true Twenty20 trump in this tournament, claimed the vital wicket of Pietersen, and further still when Dwayne Bravo accounted for Owais Shah and Paul Collingwood. But the true shift in power came with the news that England’s competitive total of 161 for 6 had been reduced to a far more accessible Duckworth-Lewis target of 80 from nine overs. Reckless batting could hardly be punished with a full ten wickets in hand.”As I was looking at the game, it was one big over away from getting to a run-a-ball,” Sarwan said. “We were calm and I had the support of Shiv at the next end. We both are experienced players and we’ve experienced situations like this before. It wasn’t really too hard.”The bad vibes of a summer of discontent were dispelled to the dark recesses of the mind when the Windies stormed the field en masse following Sarwan’s match-winning drive to the boundary. The images were reminiscent of those that accompanied West Indies stunning Champions Trophy victory at this very ground in 2004, and Gayle believes his rejuvinated team can emulate that feat in the World Twenty20 finals”To be honest with you, a lot of teams fear us,” he said. “We were written off from the start of the tournament and we’re actually in the semi-final. If you look at each and everyone of our players and we’re actually winners.”

Ricky Ponting has said he would be more than happy to have Andrew Symonds in his Ashes squad but conceded the selectors faced a hard call on whether they could squeeze him in. The touring party will be named at 11am (AEST) on Wednesday and there is no guarantee that Symonds, who was once a certainty in the starting XI, will be chosen.His off-field issues over the past year have led to him being stood down from the side on two occasions and he has struggled to regain his best form at first-class level. That has allowed Marcus North to capably slot into the No. 6 role, while Andrew McDonald has held down the allrounder’s position.Shane Watson and Brad Hodge will also come into contention along with Symonds, who made his latest comeback for Australia in the recent one-day series against Pakistan in the UAE. Ponting said it would be no great bombshell if Symonds was named in the squad, which is likely to feature 16 players.”I wouldn’t be surprised, he has had his share of battles over the last 12 months, obviously the well documented stuff off the field,” Ponting told AAP. “He’s worked his way back into domestic cricket pretty well and played well for us over in Abu Dhabi, Dubai.”He’s a great guy to have around a team, there is no doubt about that. Obviously the selectors are going to have some tough decisions to make in the coming hours.”Blog with Alex Brown on the Ashes squad between 10.30am and 12.30pm (AEST) on Wednesday

ScorecardGeraint Jones’s century was the ideal start to his future at No. 3•Getty Images

At the start of the 2005 Ashes summer Kent wicketkeeper Geraint Jones was an integral part of the England set up, yet he starts this season of expectation as his county’s new No3 batsman and a long way down his country’s pecking order behind the stumps.However, Jones remains phlegmatic over his demise from the England set-up, preferring instead to concentrate on raising sheep, pigs and a family at his Kentish smallholding, while scoring runs for fun for his club. He rode his luck in cracking a 110-ball century against Northamptonshire and was dropped on seven and then 87 in the sunshine at Canterbury, but his blustery innings with 16 fours and six helped advance a game that threatened to get stuck in the doldrums.Northamptonshire had limped forward at a sedate pace throughout the four sessions of their first innings in posting 355 at a rate of only 2.7 per over, yet Jones and his team-mates upped the entertainment value considerably once they got to the crease soon after lunch on the second day.With no extreme pace in the attack to worry about Kent clattered a flurry of boundaries that kept the St Lawrence scoreboard ticking over at more than four-an-over and, as a result, inside two sessions, they had reduced Northamptonshire’s lead to just 95.After batting at his new county position of No. 3 for the first time, a delighted Jones said: “I had my fair share of luck with two fairly straightforward chances missed, but that’s the way I’ve set myself up to play now. I had a couple of years scratching around trying to be a proper batsman, now I’m going back to my roots and if I see the ball up there I’m going to try and hit it.”It’s nice start for me and to get a hundred first up is fantastic although I am aware that it will be hard work what with keeping and batting at No. 3. Our umpire today, Barry Duddleston had a spell doing the same in his playing days, and he asked me how I would cope with the work rate? I just said ‘it’ll be fine; I’ve got the winter to sleep!”I’m really looking forward to it, it’s what I set myself to do over the winter and I know it will be tough work, but I’ll look after myself, have plenty of massage from the physiotherapist and generally make sure I take care of my body.”Jones’s luck finally ran out the ball after he celebrated his ton when seamer David Wigley held on to a stinging return catch, but there was still no let up for the Northamptonshire attack. Thereafter Kent pushed on with a flurry of boundaries through to stumps as Martin van Jaarsveld (70 not out) and Darren Stevens (46 not out) added an attractive, unbroken 78 for the fourth wicket.Earlier Kent’s weakened attack performed heroics by claiming the last five Northamptonshire wickets for 87 runs in a shade over two-and-a-half hours. Nicky Boje, 77 not out overnight, was two short of a century when he edged James Tredwell’s first ball of the day into the gloves of Jones. There was little resistance after that and Azhar Mahmood finished with 4 for 73 and Tredwell 2 for 84.

Rajasthan Royals captain and coach Shane Warne has said the absence of leading performers Shane Watson and Sohail Tanvir will be a serious blow to the team as they look to defend their IPL crown in South Africa. While Australian allrounder Watson was the Player of the Tournament last season, Pakistan fast bowler Tanvir finished as the leading wicket-taker with 22 wickets.Both players will be on international duty during the Australia-Pakistan series in the UAE from April 22-May 7, playing five ODIs and a Twenty20 international.Watson, who recently came off a long-term injury, joined the Royals for their training camp in Cape Town but will fly out with the Australian team next week. Tanvir, on the other hand, will be missing the entire tournament after the IPL cancelled the contracts of Pakistan players because of political tension between India and Pakistan.”They are big losses,” Warne said. “I think Shane misses the first nine games playing for Australia so he’ll be available for the last five games and hopefully the finals. He’s not bowling at the moment but he’s still a big loss. Tanvir was sensational last year, taking early wickets and bowling at the end.”With the IPL rules restricting teams to field a maximum of four non-Indian players, the situation has become complicated for Rajasthan. Warne and South African captain Graeme Smith are likely to fill two of those slots, with England’s Dimitri Mascarenhas and South Africa’s Tyron Henderson looking to take up Watson’s role. South African fast bowler Morne Morkel and Australia’s Shane Harwood will be competing as strike bowlers.Among the Indian players, Warne said he had high hopes from Kamran Khan, 18, the left-arm seamer from Uttar Pradesh who bowls with a slingy action and surprising pace. “He’s a tiny little guy but he bowls 140 plus. He’s very raw but he could be a bit of a bolter,” Warne said.Khan bowled just one over during Rajasthan’s 28-run loss to the Cape Cobras in Cape Town on Saturday, as Amit Singh, the 27-year-old right-arm fast bowler from Gujarat impressed with 3 for 18. Rajasthan will also be boosted by the return of Munaf Patel, who achieved reasonable success with the Indian team during their tour of New Zealand.Rajasthan Royals begin their campaign in the second season against the Bangalore Royal Challengers on April 18.

Venkatesh Prasad believes that this IPL will throw up an interesting situation when top cricketers share dressing rooms and gameplans but will be wary of revealing too much ahead of the ICC World Twenty20 in June. Prasad, India’s bowling coach, admitted that he is keen to pick the brains of his IPL team’s foreign players like Andrew Flintoff, Makhaya Ntini and Albie Morkel to strengthen India’s chances in England.Prasad is bowling coach of the IPL’s Chennai Super Kings and, barely ten days after the IPL ends in South Africa on May 24, will join the Indian thinktank for the ICC tournament that starts on June 5 in England. India will be defending their world title and England’s Flintoff and the South Africans Ntini and Morkel are key players for their national teams.”Most of the international players will look to use the IPL as a launchpad for the World Twenty20 and you have to be smart here,” Prasad told Cricinfo. “It’s all about how much of information you want to share and how much information you can gain from others. I am sure there will be a lot of people who would like to know a lot about the Indian team. So I need to be very clear about how much of information I would like to share with others, even if they are from your own IPL team.”At the same time, I would like to pick the brains of players like Freddie Flintoff, Ntini, Morkel or even Stephen Fleming (Chennai’s head coach) in terms of how the New Zealand guys go about their business in a Twenty20 situation.”The former India bowler, who is back in India after the series win in New Zealand, said he would also be watching closely how the IPL’s foreign coaches help their domestic Indian players make key adjustments in technique and approach in a foreign venue. Communication would be crucial, Prasad said, and added that he was not quite sure how the foreign coaches would cope.”I really don’t know if the domestic players would be able to understand what the foreign coaches are saying,” he said. “I am not very sure about that. I am not criticising anybody here. But the fact is the way we play our cricket is completely different. So I don’t know how coaches who don’t know how we play our cricket are going to manage.”In India, the whole approach is slightly different; for instance, we use much more of our wrists than anybody else, we play more by instinct. We take most of our decisions out there (on the field). You might have a plan, but you also need to go out there and use your mind in terms of assessing the situation and dealing with it.”All the eight IPL teams have foreign coaches at the helm: apart from Chennai’s Fleming, the franchises have recruited John Buchanan for Kolkata, Tom Moody for Punjab, Ray Jennings for Bangalore, Shane Warne for Rajasthan, the IPL champions, Greg Shipperd for Delhi, Darren Lehmann for Hyderabad, and Shaun Pollock, who has been designated as Mumbai’s mentor. “From what I have known of foreign teams, once they make a plan, no matter what they just go with that plan,” Prasad said. “Sometimes it may be good, sometimes it may be bad. I don’t know how the foreign coaches are going to handle this situation; that’s something to look at.”Some of the franchises already have former India players playing key roles in their team managements, like VB Chandrasekhar for Chennai, Praveen Amre for Mumbai and TA Sekhar for Delhi.Prasad said that his IPL stint will be crucial for India in the long-term because he would use the 36-day tournament to identify a bowling talent pool for the country and work closely with MS Dhoni, India’s captain who also leads Chennai, to finalise plans for the hectic international season coming up.Prasad hopes to pick up some useful tips during the IPL to pass on to India’s bowlers ahead of their defence of the ICC World Twenty20 in England in June•AFP

Asked about the adjustments that India’s domestic players, who form a chunk of the IPL squads, will have to make in South Africa, Prasad said bowlers would have to work hard on their lengths.”You need to pull the length slightly more back in South Africa because hitting through the line is much easier,” he said. “If you bowl the same fuller lengths that you bowl in India, it comes on to the bat quite well. So, to get that extra bit of bounce and to get batsmen to make more mistakes, you need to just pull the length back slightly. You can’t just pitch the ball fully up like we do in India to get the swing. Because of the slowness of the wickets in India, the ball grips the pitch and comes slightly more slower than expected. In South African conditions, the ball comes slightly quicker.”But in the end, he said, there are some golden rules that the bowlers will have to stick to. “Twenty20 is all about sticking to the basics. It’s about backing your strengths, bowling wicket-to-wicket so that if a batsman misses, you hit the wicket; using your variations intelligently; and importantly, assessing what the batsman is looking to do in a particular situation and be a step ahead.”Incidentally, Prasad was outstanding on his only international tour of South Africa in 1996-97. He shared the new ball with Javagal Srinath in the Test series and took 17 wickets at 25 including a ten-wicket haul in the first Test in Durban.However, his previous IPL stint with Bangalore Royal Challengers ended in disappointment after the team finished seventh amidst a cloud of controversy – reports emerged midway through the tournament over a difference of opinion between Vijay Mallya, the franchise owner, and the team’s thinktank that also included Martin Crowe and Rahul Dravid, the captain.Prasad moved to the Chennai team last month after an “interaction on the matter” with Dhoni and is now back in Bangalore, where he is based, from New Zealand. Prasad described the New Zealand tour as an “exciting experience” with India winning a Test series there after 41 years.”Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh did an exceptional job and were ably supported by Ishant [Sharma] and Munaf [Patel],” he said. But what really caught his eye, Prasad said, was Dhoni’s captaincy. “He was in complete control, assessed the various situations perfectly, and made some amazing calls by sheer instinct which paid off.”Prasad said he will now fly to Durban early next week to join Chennai’s training camp before moving to Cape Town for the opening game against Mumbai on April 18. “I know the Chennai bowlers well since we played against them last time,” he said. “I know what their strengths are, but a week will help me get to know them up-close and personal before the battle begins.”