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West Indies, Australia end 2007 on a high

Well done West Indies for winning, astoundingly, their first overseas Test for seven and a half years (as always Bangladesh and Zimbabwe are excised from these statistics). I must admit to having doubts when I boldly wrote yesterday that there was no chance of South Africa chasing more than 350 to win, but West Indies bowled excellently and did not flap, as they could have easily done, when Kallis and De Villiers added 112 for the sixth wicket. All the bowlers did their bit and they seem, for the first time in a while, to have a pace quartet of genuine pace, accuracy and venom.

John Dyson, the new coach, must take some of the credit for instilling belief into the team (as should Chris Gayle, the new captain). Naturally, Dyson is Australian. These guys just don't know how to lose, do they? Except for Geoff Lawson with Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Ricky Ponting and Co roll on, winning the first Test against India in disappointingly easy fashion. The worry is that India would probably still beat most other sides on the same wicket. Is it just psychological? Have Australia become impossible to beat? We need someone to shake them, instil a bit of the doubt that England did in 2005. Can't Sreesanth be brought in to bowl at Hayden's nose? Can't the much vaunted golden batsman build a long innings any more? I was looking forward to this series so much but after one Test it has gone flat. Boo.

Cricket's biggest scandal

Clive Radley, head coach at MCC, and Rachel Heyhoe-Flint, the former England women's captain, have been cricket's winners in the New Year's Honours List today. Radley gets and MBE and RHF has an OBE, but where is Graham Gooch's knighthood for services to scoring hundreds while looking thoroughly Eeyore-like? An MBE for Ronnie Irani wouldn't have been out of order, either.

West Indies collapse in sight of victory - but should still win

While Australia continue to stroll towards victory in Melbourne, at least West Indies are showing us how to win with style. Well placed an hour before the close of the third day in their Test against South Africa in Port Elizabeth, some 330 runs ahead with eight wickets in hand in their second innings, the Windies had one of those truly nasty collapses that only they and England can have, dropping from 122 for two to 144 for eight. And yet, at 359 runs ahead, they should still win. The highest run-chase at the ground in the 118 years it has staged Test cricket is 271.

If anything, the collapse may have increased the chance of a West Indies win, removing any reticence about when to declare. Jerome Taylor, Daren Powell and Fidel Edwards, the remaining batsmen, will be told to make the best use of their meagre batting talents as quickly as possible before resuming their normal roles and attempting to make inroads into South Africa before lunch.

The thing I have been most impressed with is Chris Gayle's flagrant disregard for the usual convention that a captain should be a bit more careful when he bats, especially if he opens the innings, than usual. Gayle put the game just about beyond reach today when, having patiently waited a full nine balls, he hit Dale Steyn for 19 runs in the fifth over, including a top-edged six over fine leg. His innings of 29 off 22 balls was scored at a similar rate to his 66 off 49 balls in the first innings. It made up for the turgid yawnsome batting of Darren Ganga, who had raced to four by the tenth over and scored 45 of a couple of thousand balls, or so it seemed, before being run out. In fact, these two complement each other well. Caution and flair seem the ideal blend at the top of the order for West Indies.

Statto-geekery reveals Lee's impressive streak

There has been justified praise of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, whose innings of 104 today against South Africa not only put West Indies in a winnable position but was his seventh consecutive innings of 50 or better. Only Everton Weekes (named after the famous football club, Weekes United) and Andy Flower have done the same.

But statto-geek that I am, I have spotted an almost as impressive streak that continued in Australia earlier in the day when Brett Lee dismissed Anil Kumble. It gave the fast bowler his 250th Test wicket, the sixth Australian to do so, but also meant that he had taken at least three wickets for the eighth consecutive innings. He later got the wicket of Zaheer Khan, meaning that he has taken four wickets in his past five Test innings, all of them since Glenn McGrath retired. So much for Australia being a weaker side. Lee has stood up to the extra responsibility and responded in terrific fashion.

If five-fors get as much attention (places on honours boards and ball-waving to the crowd and all that) as hundreds, then for my money a three-for is worth the same as a batsman reaching 50. There is more scope for a bowler to fail to take three wickets for reasons not within his control (ie, other bowlers doing well or teams declaring) than there is for a batsman not reaching 50. Thus, I would argue, Brett Lee's achievement is even better than Chanderpaul's or at least comparable.

It is almost as rare. In an idle half-hour today, I checked the career figures of the usual suspects and reckon that Lee's eight consecutive three-fors has been matched or bettered by only six men. Charlie Turner did eight in a row in the 1880s (and seven of his were five-fors) as did Sydney Barnes and Imran Khan. Clarrie Grimmett took three wickets or more with the final nine innings of his leg-spinning career.

Waqar Younis also took nine three-fors in a row and then, astonishingly, followed it with 14 in succession in Tests from 1992-94. I thought that would be the record, but of course Muttiah Muralitharan trumped them all. He has gone on a streak of ten or more three-fors on four occasions, the most being in 2006-07 when he had 16 notable innings in a row. Just another eight more needed by Lee, then.

Hair-brained

I don't normally make fun of typos and slips in other people's copy, not least because there but for the grace of dog go I, but there were a glaring couple of mistakes that appeared in Michael Beloff's round-up of sport and the law in The Daily Telegraph yesterday. Near the end, he refers to "Australian umpire Darryl Hair" and his suit for race discrimination against the ICC which was abandoned, Beloff says, "after eight days of hearing".

It's bad enough that Beloff should get the spelling of Darrell wrong, but he is out by two days on the length of the trial, unless he is including the weekend, when the court did not sit. Play was abandoned first thing in the morning of the seventh day. A good sub-editor should have picked these mistakes up, but they are almost inexcusable given that Beloff was the QC who represented the ICC in that very trial. Or was eight days the number that he billed?

Incidentally, Hair has just completed a month-long Neuro-Linguistic Programming course for the ICC, which was part of the rehabilitation programme he had to undergo in exchange for dropping the lawsuit. It sounds like they are turning him into an emotionless cyborg, but they already have Simon Taufel for that. Apparently it has something to do with improving his flexibility and communications skills.

He will umpire a couple of Intercontinental Cup matches in Dubai next month and is due to be involved with the Under-19 World Cup in February, around the time that the ICC will decide whether to renew his contract and, presumably, allow him to stand in Tests again. With India and Sri Lanka saying they have no problem with Hair now that he has served his time, the only stumbling block to him being reinstated is Pakistan but I imagine they have rather more important things than cricket to concern them right now.

No Christmas presents from Australia

So now I know what I've been doing wrong with my fielding all these years. I've been trying to keep my eyes on the ball when attempting a catch, rather than gazing at a point about a foot above the ball. Still, these Australians are so good they can all probably bat, bowl and catch with their eyes shut.

Shane Warne may think that the era of Australian dominance is coming to an end but there were few signs of it on the second day of their keenly awaited Test series with India. And to think that we were getting excited because it looked as if Australia would be bowled out for under 300 on the first day. First, the tail took them towards 350 and then Stuart Clark and Brett Lee shut India out for 196. Good to see Tendulkar make some runs on what is probably his final tour of Australia, but chances are that this match will be wrapped up on the fourth day. Australia kill any anticipation for a tense series as quickly as a child seeing his mother kissing Santa on Christmas Eve.

Two things to look out for on day 3: if Hayden makes another 22 runs, he will be the fifth fastest to 8,000, beating Ricky Ponting by one innings; and if Hussey makes 102 runs in his next two innings, he will be the second fastest to 2,000, behind Bradman.

Meanwhile, at least there is a game on in Port Elizabeth, where West Indies are nudging up towards 350 with four wickets in hand as I type. One of my wishes for 2008 is for West Indies to be competitive in overseas Tests, so at least they are making South Africa work in this match.

Turkey tikka masala

Line and Length would like to wish a very merry Christmas to all our friends and readers around the world. Do let us know your cricketing thoughts over the festive season.

One email arrived this morning from Mathew Gullick, who is touring India with the England lawyers XI, acclimatising himself to conditions before the start of the inaugural Lawyers Cricket World Cup. Mat will be keeping us posted with our plucky bloodsuckers as they get smashed by lawyers from all parts of the Commonwealth this winter.

He writes: "My first dispatch from India contains very little cricket news: I managed to get my kit on the plane (though excess baggage charges were eye-watering) and landed in India safely a week ago.  Since then I have sent the kit down to Hyderabad (no doubt it will arrive at the wrong hotel, turn up months later back home, etc), and have spent four days in Delhi and three in Jaisalmer near the Pakistan border before coming back on the overnight sleeper to Jaipur.  Cricket really is a national obsession in this country, and wherever I go I am asked about it - ages from 10 to 60 were discussing the Indian team selection for Australia in our sleeper compartment late last night!

"I have done lots of touristy things - been to the Taj Mahal, gone on a desert camel trek, etc, but now thoughts are turning to the tournament.  With a few hours to spare in Jaipur I thought I'd see what has been posted on the web about it, and have discovered these two - one story from the Times of India about the Pakistan team's difficulties, and a website uncannily like our own blog from the Sri Lankan team."

I particularly liked this (hopefully tongue in cheek) comment from the Pakistan team's manager, complaining that they have been unable to practise during the state of emergency in their country: "The only victims of the emergency have been the lawyers and the judges as their fundamental right to play any form of cricket was placed under effective suspension. The emergency has been lifted only partially as the judges are allowed to bat but are not allowed to wear any pads, helmets, gloves and other items of defence. Their right to bowl has been restored but they cannot bowl fast ones as low speed limits against their liking have been set. They are allowed to spin the ball but for the time being are banned from bowling a googly, a chinaman or a doosra."

As Peter McGuinness commented on the original post, this is a rare tournament where everyone is on the side of the umpires.

Looking ahead

England flew back from their rather disappointing Test tour of Sri Lanka this morning - how quickly we have forgotten the extraordinary success they had in the one-day series that preceded it, beating the World Cup finalists in their own back yard - and thoughts now turn to part two of the winter: the tour of New Zealand in February and March.

(Incidentally, I disagree with the Times style ruling that sports teams have a "tour to" somewhere instead of a "tour of". Even though tours are truncated these days, players still spend more time in the country than they do getting there, especially in the 50 or so years since teams toured by aircraft rather than boat.)

The squad for the New Zealand tour (there's a style loophole) will be announced in barely a fortnight and is unlikely to be that different from the Sri Lanka 16. Having ducked the chance to give Mark Ramprakash a final chance, the selectors are hardly likely to call him up now. Among the batsmen, the only change will probably be Andrew Strauss to come in, and possibly open, while one of Ravi Bopara and Owais Shah will stay at home. I imagine that after Bopara made little impact bar enthusiasm and good fielding, he will be the one told to head back to Chelmsford and prepare for the county season.

Warne's lost that loving feeling

Bah humbug. Shane Warne cares not a jot for Christmas cheer (or indeed for the fact that Australia won everything in sight for eight years under the coaching of John Buchanan) and has instead called his former national coach a "goose". Well, at least it is a festive insult.

I'm assuming he means that Buchanan is a bit of a fool for his recent airing of some unusual ideas, but surely Buchanan deserves a bit more respect given everything he did for Australia. Or is Warne, in likening him to a dumb animal stuffed with fat (hypocrite alert), still wounded by not being made captain?

There is another conclusion. If Buchanan is "Goose" then there is no denying that Warne is "Maverick". Who is "Iceman", though? Mike Hussey?

Small glimmers of hope

I write this a few hours before the start of the last day of the first part of the England cricket team's winter and with only one wicket down and 102 runs on the board there is a chance that they may yet save the Galle Test. They will still lose the series 1-0 and be dumped to fifth in the world rankings, but it is better than it appeared yesterday when a heavy innings defeat seemed a probability.

Thanks to the rain but also some pleasing display of backbone, England may yet escape with a bit of honour. Alastair Cook continues to impress after a shocking first Test and Ian Bell has, disturbingly, become England's safest bet for a middling-but-not-quite-substantial score. If Bell gets his regulation 70-odd and Cook can get England's first hundred of the winter, the match will be almost safe. Pietersen (96 runs in five innings so far) needs to make a score at some point, too.

I don't know what the weather forecast is in Sri Lanka, but chances are they will not have to bat out the full 90 overs, but here's hoping that they get enough time in the middle to show that the disaster of the first innings was just one of those things. It would be a shame if the weather could be used as an excuse for Sri Lanka not winning, rather than England's doughty batmanship. Let's hope for 66 more overs, giving a round total of 100, and England only a couple more wickets down in the time.