Dravid back in Indian ODI team

Former India captain Rahul Dravid was today recalled to India's one-day squad for the forthcoming tri-series in Sri Lanka and the ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa next month.

Rohit Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Subramaniam Badrinath and Ravindra Jadeja were the notabe ommisions from the squad that won the one-day series in West Indies in June.

Amit Mishra was recalled to the one-day squad for the first time since he made his debut in 2003.

While Rahul Dravid has made a return to the Indian team after a gap of nearly two years, Sachin Tendulkar and Suresh Raina have also made a comeback.

The 36-year-old Dravid's last ODI appearance was as far back as in October, 2007.

As expected, Tendulkar who made himself unavailable for the four-match ODI series in the West Indies in June-July, is back to the squad along with Suresh Raina. An injury had kept Raina away from the West Indies tour.

Virender Sehwag has not been picked as the selectors want to give him some rest after his shoulder surgery.

And with Zaheer Khan too ruled out after a similar surgery, Ashish Nehra will now partner Ishant Sharma with the new ball.

UP all-rounder Praveen Kumar got the nod ahead of Sudeep Tyagi for the last seamer's slot.

Tamilnadu captain Dinesh Karthik, who came in for the West Indies ODIs as replacement for Virender Sehwag, and Abhishek Nayar, who edged out Ravindra Jadeja, held on to their places.

Chief selector Krish Srikkanth and his colleagues in the selection committee went by the players' performance in their last ODI series in the West Indies, which they won 2-1, besides their fitness levels which was assessed in Delhi and Mumbai under coach Gary Kirsten's hawk eyes.

India squad: Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni (capt/wk), Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Ashish Nehra, RP Singh, Amit Mishra, Dinesh Karthik, Abhishek Nayar.

PTI Umpiring howler accounts for Tendulkar yet again

Colombo: For the third time in a row, Sachin Tendulkar was on Tuesday done in by poor umpiring in the current one-day series against Sri Lanka, being declared leg before wicket in yet another dubious decision.

Tendulkar was declared leg-before in the first ODI in Dambulla when the ball was clearly pitched outside the leg stump, he fell LBW against in the second ODI when the ball was missing the leg stump and was again ruled leg-before by Sri Lankan umpire Gamini Silva on Tuesday when the ball was going down the leg side by an even wider margin. 
The three umpiring errors have meant that Tendulkar has made scores of 5, 6 and 7 in the series so far. 
True to his character, Tendulkar has not shown any dissent although his disappointment was palpable. 
India's coach Gary Kirsten was seen shaking his head in disbelief after watching television replays of Tendulkar's dismissal in the dressing room.


The champion batsman, who had been in excellent form in the recent series against Australia and England, suddenly finds himself going through a lean patch for no fault of his. 
Tendulkar has compiled 16,433 runs in 421 one-day matches at an average of 44.05, while he has an even better average of 54.27 in the longer version of the game in which he has accumulated 12,429 runs in 156 matches.

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India won the match

The environment at Chepauk on the 5th day was wonderful.Our stand was Jam packed.Compared to yesterday, there was a good turn-out today for the match.The chennai crowd was fully satisfied by the performance of our Indian team for the last 2 days.Eventhough England was the Dominant side before yesterday, Shewag turned the match,His quick Knock of 83 was Fantastic.The Runs came very quickly on the last session of 4th day.This created full Confidence in our team.By the start of 5th day, we can see the stress on England. Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh stitched together an unbroken 188-run stand for four wicket to put India on the threshold of a memorable win against England on the fifth and final day of the first cricket Test at Chennai on Monday.

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Tendulkar hit a boundary to not only notch up his 41st Test century but also bring about the winning runs, triggering off wild scenes of celebrations in the galleries.   The seizable crowd at the Chepauk had plenty to cheer about as the Indians went about chasing down the fourth highest target in the fourth innings in Test history.   While West Indies have the record of the highest run chase of 418/7 against Australia at St. Johns in 2003, India is second in the list for successfully chasing 406 against the West Indies at Port of Spain in 1976.   The only other team to have scored more than 400 runs in the fourth innings is Australia who scored 404/3 against England at Leeds in 1948.   It was the highest ever fourth innings target achieved at any venue in the country, 276 by the West Indies at Delhi in 1987-88 was the previous best.   India's best effort in winning a test match at home when batting last was 256-8 against Australia at Mumbai in the 1964-65 series, but it did make 347 to tie the 1986 Test against Australia in Chennai.   The two teams will now travel to Mohali for the second Test beginning on December 19. Resuming at the overnight score of 131 for one, India suffered an early setback when Rahul Dravid (4) got out cheaply yet again. Dravid was out edging Andrew Flintoff to wicketkeeper Matt Prior in third over of the day.   But Gambhir and Tendulkar took upon the challenge and at one stage maintained a run rate of around five runs per over, attacking the England bowlers. The duo added 42 runs for the third wicket.   Gambhir and Tendulkar never looked under any pressure and took singles and twos without much problem, besides sending the odd bad balls to the ropes.   Tendulkar, in particular, was enjoying his batting as he punished the bowlers whenever they gave width to him for playing shots.   Tendulkar survived a half chance soon after India crossed the 150 mark. With Graeme Swann hitting the right areas, the little master stretched to defend but the ball took a sharp turn and hit the outer edge of the bat to fall inches in front of Ian Bell at silly point. Tendulkar was on ten then.   Gambhir was shaping well as he added 24 runs with Dravid and 42 with Tendulkar but one lapse of concentration saw him back in the pavillion.   After bowling two short-pitched deliveries in previous over, James Anderson kept up the pressure on Gambhir attacking on the off side corridor, and the Indian opener paid the price for a lapse in concentration.   Gambhir moved across and his half hearted steer end up to Paul Collingwood who moved to his left at slips and took a good catch at gully.   Though there was a slight drop in run flow at the fall of Gambhir, Laxman adapted to the conditions quickly and was in no mood to take any risk against Monty Panesar, who maintained a tight length.    England captain Kevin Pietersen withdrew his bowlers whenever they gave away runs denying the Indians to settle down. But Laxman, in particular, was focused and used his feet for well-timed drives.   With both Tendulkar and Yuvraj holding the aces against the English bowlers, India were in sight of a historic win. Tendulkar who struck his 52nd fifty and crossed 1000-run mark this year, played the anchor role using his experience to gather runs mostly through singles and twos.   England heaved a sigh of relief when Graeme Swann scalped Laxman (42 balls, 4X4) who was out to a bat pad catch by Ian Bell.   Yuvraj, after reading the pitch for a while, continued with India's plan of counter-attack and Tendulkar played a good foil keeping one end intact.   For a while, Monty Panesar and Swann kept up the pressure and momentarily arrested the flow of runs. But once Tendulkar and Yuvraj brought about their 50 stand with Yuvraj sweeping Panesar to the fence, the duo started to cut loose