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Crime and punishment

Unseasonal rains may have provided the Chepauk curator with an excuse, but any more pitches like this and we may as well bring out the coffin for Test cricket in India. If crowds are anything to go by, it perished in Pakistan years ago, and rigor mortis will soon set in elsewhere in the subcontinent as well.

Despite the fact that India's best results these days come on sporting pitches, the tradition of lifeless flatbeds continues to plague Test matches in India. Chennai once used to be an honourable exception, producing fantastic Test matches in 1999 [Pakistan], 2001 [Australia] and 2004 [when the final day against Australia was washed out].

The cavalier's second coming

With the exception of a couple that were watched on television, I've been fortunate to watch all of Virender Sehwag's 14 centuries inside the stadiums that his strokeplay set alight. And despite all the hyperbole tonight, I can safely say that this wasn't his best.

The bat-a-thon continues

At times on a second day when 318 runs were scored, you could almost imagine that the game was being played out on the East Coast Road up just up the coast, such was the nature of the pitch. The six wickets that India picked up, four of them in a rush after tea as South Africa went for quick runs, should fool no one.

At no stage was there a genuine contest between bat and ball, with even stalwarts like Anil Kumble and the exciting Dale Steyn being treated with scant respect by batsmen who could afford to plonk the front foot forward and drive through the line. When some of the best bowlers in the game are made to look like second-rate trundlers, it's probably time for those that sanction these type of pitches to do a bit of soul-searching.

The English itinerary is a disgrace

Two Tests and seven one-day internationals. Seven one-day games against England? What a waste of time. The Indian board has conveniently blamed the FTP for there being only two Tests, but it begs the question: Why on Earth do we need seven ODIs?

Game on as McKenzie steals the show

If the opening day at Chepauk proved anything, it was that this series is going to be a long, hard slog in intense summer heat. South Africa may not be as formidable as Australia, but they have a doggedness and steel about them that suggests these three Tests will be every bit as evenly contested as the ones played out in the southern Cape 15 months ago.

The two bridesmaids go head to head

For me, Chennai has always been the premier Test venue in India. Eden Gardens is bigger and more imposing, but over the past few decades, the failure of the fans to keep a lid on their emotions - firestarting, booing national icons and the whole team on one occasion - has seen it slip down the pecking order. Chepauk has the history [Douglas Jardine last captained England here], and also a crowd steeped in the traditions of the five-day game.

Paddy's Day memories

A year ago, I was at Sabina Park, watching one of the greatest sporting upsets. To the tune of Cotton-Eye Joe, Molly Malone and many others, Ireland's finest, some of them originally from Australia, held their nerve to shock Pakistan. A South African, Andre Botha, did a fair imitation of Glenn McGrath on a seam-friendly pitch, before Boyd Rankin and others sent Pakistan plummeting to a dismal total.

The politics of race

They arrive in India ranked as the world's leading one-day side, though an Australian team with three successive World Cups and a Champions Trophy in the cabinet might justifiably pooh-pooh that status. In the Test arena, South Africa aren't as formidable a force, though victories over India, Pakistan and New Zealand at home, and Pakistan and Bangladesh away have set them up nicely for a tilt at India, currently ranked second to Australia.

No Australia. Champions Trophy next?

What most of us suspected has now been confirmed, and though the official line from the two boards says that the series has only been postponed, it's hard to see Australia touring Pakistan before 2010. The itinerary is packed for the rest of this year, and 2009 has an Ashes series as its centrepiece. With the Pakistan Cricket Board not amenable to hosting the series at a neutral venue, it's hard to see where the matches will be fitted in if they're not played now.

Playing for free

Luke Pomersbach, who enjoyed 15 minutes of fame in the Twenty20 game against New Zealand last December, will be among those up for auction during the IPL's second round of bids on Tuesday. The left-hander, who can boast of centuries against England and South Africa in tour games, appears to be pretty desperate to be part of the inaugural edition.

As we look back

Now that the dust has settled and Indian TV channels [Australian papers too will need to find some news to write about, instead of the Harbhajan Singh show] have stopped talking of the CB Series win as though it was the equivalent of a moon landing or a World Cup triumph, we can look back at three months of enthralling cricket. It's just a shame that so many fantastic memories are soured by collective behaviour that would embarrass my five-year-old nephew. Australia won the Test series despite being ambushed at Perth, and India rode on the elixir of youth to clinch the last-ever tri-series in two straight games. Here, we look back at some of the memorable moments and performers.

Was Tendulkar's Sydney special his best?

I got a very interesting email from Anandkumar in Bangalore this morning. With his permission, it's shown below...

Notwithstanding the sheer delight of watching his matchwinning 117 not out on Sunday against Australia, statistically too ,  I thought this ought to rate as the best [one-day] innings in  his illustrious career. Here are some statistics  thanks to Statsguru on Cricinfo.

Kumar and Tendulkar shine as Gilchrist fades away

Two of one-day cricket's biggest legends, automatic picks for any all-time XI, and yet the manner in which they exited the Australian stage couldn't have been more contrasting. Sachin Tendulkar's marvellous 91 set up the game for India, while Adam Gilchrist's first-over dismissal meant that Australia's chase was ill-fated from the start. With India's win, the tri-series also went into the pages of history, without the home win that a near-capacity crowd at the Gabba would have hoped for.

Tendulkar buries Australian jinx

This is the 29th and final tri-series to be played in Australia, and the finals will almost certainly be Sachin Tendulkar's last games on Australian soil. In 38 previous one-day matches, he had never managed a century in Australia, with a 93 against Pakistan at Hobart being the closest that he had come. In recent times, his second-innings record had also come in for scrutiny, with Sanjay Manjrekar calling him the "elephant in the room" that no one dared talk about.