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Brett Lee believes he is now a craftier bowler than at any time in his career, but despite being 34 he is not willing to compromise his speed. Australia’s captain, Ricky Ponting, last week described Lee as the glue that held Australia’s World Cup attack together, although he has only three wickets from three games, while the spoils have been greater for Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson.But that is no reflection on how Lee has bowled. He has been accurate and miserly, and is enjoying being the leader of the attack, having spent more than a year out of Australia’s side due to injuries throughout 2009 and 2010. He could have been forgiven for reducing his pace in an effort to prolong his career, but Lee is confident he has plenty of speed left in his armoury.”I’m still out to bowl fast,” Lee said. “I said about six months ago that if I couldn’t hit that 150kph mark I wouldn’t want to be playing cricket, which is the truth. I do thrive on speed. I enjoy the pace, I enjoy seeing the stumps fly. That’s the exciting part of cricket.”However, on the slower pitches of the subcontinent, which Lee knows well, having made “40 or 50″ trips to India over the years, he has found some variations that help him when the pace off the pitch doesn’t. And it has worked – Ponting believes Lee is bowling as well as he ever has, even if the wickets have gone to the other fast men.”[I’m] more likely to be a bit more cagey as a bowler now, a bit smarter,” Lee said. “As batsmen are working on new shots, lap sweeps, reverse lap sweeps, we as bowlers have to be evolving as well – slower-ball bumpers, wide-line yorkers, those type of things. It’s just about fine-tuning your trade and being a bit smarter when you bowl.”Lee has given up first-class cricket to concentrate on lengthening his career in the shorter formats and since his return to the ODI side in January, he has taken 14 wickets at 25.28. His role in the World Cup attack is to be the steadiest of the three pace bowlers, and he said although all three of them could hit 150kph, they each offered Ponting something different.”If you look at the way we’ve bowled collectively as a group, we’ve bowled very well as a pace unit,” Lee said. “What we’ve got is we actually complement each other. People might think that we’re three guys that can bowl 150kph and we’re all playing the same role, but we’re completely different.”We’ve got Mitch that does what he does first change, we’ve got Taity that can fire the ball in in the first couple of overs. I try and do what I do at the top and try and lead from example. It might look as though we’ve got three guys that are bowling similar stuff but it is quite different. We’ve got a great balance in the side with Shane Watson as well, he’s been bowling well, and Jason Krejza.”The Australians have two wins and a no-result from their three games so far, but could jump to the top of the Group A table if they beat Kenya and Canada as expected in Bangalore this Sunday and Wednesday. Michael Hussey has joined the squad and will be available for the Kenya game, while the standby fast bowler Dirk Nannes is expected to fly in early next week.

Match Facts</pMarch 16, Bangalore
Start time 14:30 (09.00 GMT)
John Davison could open in his last match for Canada•AFP

The Big Picture

As Ricky Ponting was leaving the press conference, a scribe offered a friendly bit of advice: “Please bowl first, mate.” Ponting turned, smiled and said, “Ha! Bowl first eh?” before gliding out of view. Despite Ireland’s commendable performance, and two honourable fights by Canada and Kenya, Australia taking on an Associate still makes people wonder how long the game will last. A tired journalist’s view is, “Canada bat first, get bowled out for a paltry score, let the chase be done with and let’s hit the pub”. It’s a view that might be shared by Australian fans too, though they might want to see the spinners do a better job, and Ricky Ponting hit form with a big innings. The underdog fan might want a minor miracle. What about the players?Ashish Bagai, Canada’s captain, was asked a direct question about it: Will Canada try to play 50 overs and be satisfied with the honor earned in doing that? If he found it condescending, or realistic, Bagai didn’t show it. He just laughed a laugh that was open to interpretation before saying, “This is our last game. We will like to end it with a win. We will try doing that”.For his part, Ponting said, “The time for experiments is over. We have three games in a week’s time before the quarters and we want to be playing at our best. We are looking to win tomorrow’s game comfortably.”For Canada this is as big as it gets. It is their final appearance on this stage before they disappear for four more years, and maybe more, depending on the ICC’s designs for 2015. It is also John Davison’s last game and Canada are thinking about the possibility of sending him to open. It will also be the last sighting of Bagai, a fabulous wicketkeeper, and Balaji Rao, a legspinner who has dared to flight, drift, and turn, something uncommon in the bigger teams.Australia’s 33-match unbeaten run in World Cups is unlikely to end tomorrow but they have to iron out a few wrinkles. Ponting’s form hasn’t been too flash and he knows it. “I would have liked to score more runs in the game against Zimbabwe but was run out. The other games too were the same. Getting 30 or 40 is not what you are after; you have to make big scores. Since we have not played too many games, we are out of touch.” The spinners haven’t set the world on fire as Ponting said the other day. Their batsmen will also be tested by Rao.

Form guide

(most recent first)
Australia: WWWWW
Canada: LWLLL

Watch out for…

Bagai’s wicketkeeping: MS Dhoni is the best at stumpings and Kumar Sangakkara is solid all round but Bagai has looked the most fluent and natural keeper in the competition. He is quick on his feet, uses soft hands, has a wonderful anticipation, and oozes confidence when he stands up to the medium-pacers. Of course Canada rarely get close to winning, and so we will never know how good Bagai is in pressure situations, but there is enough skill to make you watch him keep.After Shahid Afridi, Balaji Rao has to be the one of the best legspinners out there. While Afridi snares his victims with sliders and variations in pace, Rao tries to treat your senses. The slow amble to the crease, the ripping release, the courage to flight, the ability to get it to drift, and the turn he can extract, makes him a neat package to watch.When Brad Haddin is at his best, he reminds you of Damien Martyn, especially when he unfurls that silky drive through extra cover. The problem is he suddenly changes into Shane Watson. For a man who can time the ball so well, he often goes hard at the ball and tries to crash it up and over the field. Perhaps he still sees himself as a wicket keeper-batsman, whose job is to score quick runs, rather than a top-class batsman. Ponting urged him to convert his starts and that’s a sign that the captain wants Haddin to have higher ambitions.

Pitch and conditions

The pitch is the same one on which Australia played Kenya. So it is bound to get slower and aid turn. It will be interesting to see how the Australian batsmen fare against the spinners.

Team news

Considering the workload in playing three games in quick succession, Australia are likely to rest Shaun Tait and give John Hastings a go.Australia (probable): 1 Shane Watson, 2 Brad Haddin (wk), 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Clarke, 5 Cameron White, 6 Michael Hussey, 7 Steven Smith, 8 John Hastings, 9 Mitchell Johnson, 9 Brett Lee, 10 Jason KrejzaCanada (probable): 1 Hiral Patel, 2 John Davison, 3 Zubin Surkari, 4 Ashish Bagai (wk), 5 Jimmy Hansra, 6 Rizwan Cheema, 7 Ruvindu Gunasekara/Parth Desai, 8 Harvir Baidwan, 9 Khurram Chohan, 10 Henry Osinde, 11 Balaji Rao

Stats and trivia

• Ricky Ponting is only player to have scored 1000 World-cup runs as a captain. He is the second after Tendulkar to score over 1600 runs in World Cups.
• Ashish Bagai is third captain-wicketkeeper to score fifty on two or more occasions in the World Cup. Kumar Sangakkara and Alec Stewart are other two.

Quotes

“We don’t have any time to worry about experimentation and getting our skills right. It’s about going full steam and playing the brand of cricket that holds good in bigger games”
“Balaji Rao has done really well for us in this tournament, right from the warm-up games. He brings great value in the dressing room too and mentors the other young spinners.”

There is not one shot that Ross Taylor cannot play. He bats in a crucial position where he needs to meld the roles of providing stability and, later, acceleration. New Zealand’s captain-in-waiting knows big things are round the corner once Daniel Vettori steps down after the World Cup. Yet in the last four years, between the two World Cups, Taylor has lived the life that Billy Murray’s Phil Connors woke up to every morning in Groundhog Day – he has been turning up for the job without being able to go beyond an unsatisfactory present. At a distance he seems stuck.Strangely, nothing much seems to have changed for Taylor since his disastrous World Cup debut in the Caribbean. Then, he walked out to bat with a head full of doubts. Out of a tournament tally of 136 runs, 85 had been cracked against Kenya and the rest were all single-digit scores. From his ODI debut in 2006 till the end of 2009, he averaged more than 34 with three centuries and 11 fifties. Since then, in 28 matches, he has averaged nearly the same, but has scored eight fifties and no century. The most notable difference however, is that he has performed very poorly in away matches recently. Since the start of 2010, he averages little more than 31 with three fifties. Prior to 2010, he scored one century and nine fifties despite averaging only about 29.One of only three top-order batsmen in New Zealand’s line-up to have played more than 100 one-day internationals, the other two being Brendon McCullum and Scott Styris, Taylor does not evoke the confidence the likes of Martin Crowe and Stephen Fleming did with their batting in in the middle order. He lacks Crowe’s application and Fleming’s perseverance. Taylor might promise us that the big one is round the corner, but even he knows it is more hope than faith.”It is disappointing. On slower wickets I have probably struggled to rotate to strike and am getting out,” said Taylor, as an explanation of his troubles. “I am not sure why.” He struggled to find a clear reason for his batting inconsistencies, but holds out hope that his game will develop beyond them. “Hopefully I can show over the next couple of years and improve the stats as we play more in the subcontinent.”Ross Taylor has been stuck in a rut, but New Zealand desperately need him to continue his development as a batsman•AFP

Yet, Taylor should know better. He is New Zealand’s best player of spin in the recent years: overall against spinners Taylor has made 1028 runs at an average of 46.72. It is a few notches better in the three countries hosting this World Cup where he averages 46.85 with 328 runs. It is hard to isolate his problems: is he is playing bad shots or is it just plain failure to execute the plans? Or is Taylor just thinking too much, which is affecting his confidence.Mark Richardson, former New Zealand opener and keen thinker of the game, feels Taylor is frustrated but is definitely capable of more if he can start working on his past mistakes. “The one thing that concerns me is that his technique has not improved. He has still got the same issues. He is still playing shots that he should not be. He is still getting out in inappropriate ways. That is the biggest thing; he has not gone forward mentally with his game as much as he would’ve hoped.”The failure of New Zealand’s top order in the recent past to cobble worthy partnerships together has been the root of New Zealand’s batting woes and that is probably having an impact on Taylor. “He is probably affected by the team situation. If he was part of the team that was performing you would get the best of out him,” Richardson says.Even Taylor agrees to the fact that he is committing mistakes that he probably should not. “We are all talented. We are getting ourselves out and it is very frustrating.” Surprisingly Taylor showed the grit and the power, characteristics missing in his one-day game, to finish or set up matches for Royal Challengers Bangalore during the IPL last year. Unlike Eoin Morgan, his Bangalore team-mate, who has utilised his Twenty20 batting skills to graduate and perform in the longer versions, Taylor has failed to take the positives from the Twenty20 format into other formats. “He is one player who has struggled to chop and change between the various skills and game-plans between the formats. He does not do it as consistently as a guy with his experience should,” Richardson says.It would be harsh to lay the entire blame for New Zealand’s frequent batting failures at Taylor’s doorstep. Brendon McCullum, Martin Guptill and Jesse Ryder have equal responsibility and if they are able to raise the platform in the first 15 to 20 overs, it makes Taylor’s job easier. He is one of the better players in the middle overs and even if takes about 15 overs to establish himself in the middle overs dealing with the slow bowlers, he can always accelerate later.That way he and the team can get the best results. At the moment he arrives at a point when New Zealand are gasping even before the PowerPlay overs are exhausted. “The problem is he comes in too early when the wickets are falling around him. You need some stability around him and then he can just take his time to get in. He will never score slowly. He will never be tied down. If he gets his eye in you can get the best out of Ross Taylor,” Richardson says.Hopefully Taylor is listening. He is New Zealand’s best batsman by a distance, but he lacks the willingness to play like one. He needs to change that soon. Otherwise he will never get out of Punxsutawney.

Ross Taylor, the New Zealand batsman, has said the failure of New Zealand’s batsmen to convert starts is what has hurt them in their ODI series loss to Pakistan. Another poor batting effort in Hamilton, on Thursday, saw the hosts go down by 41 runs to give Pakistan an unassailable 3-1 lead in the series. New Zealand lost wickets at regular intervals, as the run chase faltered repeatedly just as a decent partnership appeared to be building.”Once again we put ourselves in a good position to push ahead in the dying overs but we kept losing wickets at crucial times,” Taylor, who captained the side on Thursday in the absence of Daniel Vettori, said. “Obviously the confidence is lower because of that.”New Zealand’s batting has failed all too frequently during the series, with the top five often unable to make an impact on the game. Even when the top order have got starts – as they did on Thursday with Taylor and Martin Guptill both hitting half-centuries – none of the New Zealand batsmen have been able to play a definitive innings to swing games in their favour. In five one-dayers, the hosts’ highest individual score has been 69, and Taylor identified that as the chief reason behind their losses.”At the moment we are getting ourselves into a good position and not capitalising. The batters can take a good look at the way the Pakistanis have played. Today, [Ahmed] Shehzad went on to score three figures, Misbah got ninety-odd in Napier and Hafeez got a hundred in Christchurch. Scores of sixty from Guptill and myself are alright sometimes, but when the team needs you, you’ve got to step up and score a ninety or a hundred like they have.”The confidence is not quite there and when the confidence isn’t there results don’t seem to go your way. I don’t think we are very far away to be honest. We just need to convert a couple of sixties to big scores and make sure we don’t keep losing wickets.”Taylor said his 69 was of little consequence because he was unable to see New Zealand level the series with a win. “I was happy to get a score but it doesn’t really mean much when you lose. I got myself into a position when I should have pushed on and I didn’t go on.”Taylor did reserve praise for his bowlers, however, who reined Pakistan in during the last ten overs after they had threatened to score in excess of 300. Pakistan were 243 for 5 after 45 overs, with three batting Powerplay overs yet to come, and Shahid Afridi and Umar Akmal at the crease. Canny variations and a slower short ball used to great effect prevented Pakistan from getting away at the death and restricted their total to 268 for nine in 50 overs. Pakistan managed only 25 runs for the loss of four wickets in their final five overs, and Taylor said his bowlers’ performance in the end overs boded well for the World Cup.”I was very happy [with the death bowling]. In Christchurch, we were a little predictable, but the way we changed the pace and manipulated the field today [Thursday] kept the batsmen guessing. New Zealand grounds in general are very small and you need to do that. The way they mixed up their pace was a positive we can take out of this, not only for the next match but for the World Cup as well. Some of the grounds in India are small too.”Jacob Oram and Kyle Mills were particularly impressive, and showed their experience during the batting Powerplay. The pair picked up two wickets apiece. “I’ve got to give it to Millsy and Jake and even Hamish [Bennett] for the way he bowled his last over. They were looking like scoring well over 300. It was probably a 280, 300 wicket; we were happy to chase that down and we should have got there.”New Zealand will play one more ODI against Pakistan, in Auckland on Saturday, and Taylor said they were eager to salvage what little momentum there is to be taken from the final encounter ahead of the World Cup, which begins on February 19. “There is some urgency to get some momentum with a win [on Saturday]. But I don’t think we are far away [from a winning performance].”

Legend has it that the Kingsmead pitch used to be so green that the only way to tell the difference between it and the outfield was by the lines painted to mark out the former. Like most things in isolated South Africa – the time when this story was born – one will never know how much truth there is to it.After a hammering in Centurion, with enough short balls whizzing past their ears to last some of them a lifetime, the last thing the India batsmen will want to hear is that story, legend or not. Luckily for them, the facts of the matter are not quite as nightmarish. Kingsmead is known for its bounce and swing, but like anywhere else, when the sun comes out, it becomes a magic carpet for batsmen.India can take comfort in that and South Africa’s dodgy record in Durban in recent times. Since Graeme Smith took over the captaincy in 2003, South Africa have won three out of seven Tests played at Kingsmead, two of them against the West Indies. The third was in 2006 against India and was ten minutes away from being drawn.India were chasing 354 in their second innings, a target they were highly unlikely to get to at 101 for 7. MS Dhoni scored a brave 47, but when he fell, South Africa could sniff victory. Zaheer Khan hung around, scoring 21 off 56 balls, and came close to helping India save the match. He departed with ten minutes left on the clock and it was up to Sreesanth and VRV Singh to see out the 600 seconds that would take India to confidence-boosting draw. They couldn’t, and Sreesanth was caught behind to hand South Africa a 174-run win.It is the last two defeats in Durban that have been the most demoralising. In the 2008-09 season, Australia beat South Africa by 175 runs. South Africa were inflicted with both physical and mental wounds after that defeat. On day two, Mitchell Johnson sent both Smith and Jacques Kallis to hospital within 16 overs. It was the second time in two months that Johnson broke Smith’s finger and he unsettled the South Africa batting line-up by pinging Kallis on the jaw. It’s no wonder even the South Africans are intimidated by Durban to some degree.”The first thing we do when we get to Durban is to try to acclimatise to the bounce,” Ashwell Prince told ESPNcricinfo. “Fortunately the nets are pretty much the same as what you get in the middle.”Last season, South Africa lost by an innings and 98 runs to England, a memory that remains fresh in Smith’s mind. “We were just not good enough for the five days. They outplayed us. We didn’t bowl that well, they posted a big total and we were under pressure when batting second.” South Africa were not able to bowl England out once in that match and have come under criticism for not being able to take 20 wickets in the past. They’ll be mindful of that as they resolve the debate around the third seamer. The general feeling is that Lonwabo Tsotsobe will stay in the role, but with Wayne Parnell being perceived as a more aggressive left-armer, South Africa have a tough selection issue on their hands.The team’s policy has usually been to stick with the man in possession, in this case Tsotsobe, but with a burning desire to not let their advantage slip in Durban, they may change their minds. Smith said South Africa have had a serious think about how to approach their hoodoo venue. “We have had a good chat of how we want to play here. Even though we haven’t performed well here, there are guys with very good experience on this surface and understanding how this wicket plays and what’s going to happen. If we can keep getting our skills right here in Durban and finding the right areas with the ball, knowing our game plans with the bat, and just build on our success in Centurion, then it will be tough for India.”India may be relieved to hear that Smith thinks the pitch looks different to the one that was played on against England and Australia. They’ll be less relieved to hear that Smith said its “got a good grass covering; the most I’ve seen in Durban for a while.” Still, India can take solace in knowing that it’s unlikely that the painted lines won’t be the only thing that will distinguish the pitch from the outfield.

Group B

Maharashtra captain Rohit Motwani’s maiden first-class century lifted his side to 282 for 7 in Delhi on the opening day of their crunch game against Services that could decide who tops Group B. Services’ seam duo of Suraj Yadav and Nishan Singh had made Maharashtra’s decision to bat seem unwise when they reduced them to 145 for 6. But the 19-year old Motwani steadied the innings in a 125-run partnership with fast bowler Shrikant Mundhe. Motwani hit 15 fours in his 113 before falling leg before to Yadav. Mundhe remained unbeaten on 51 at stumps, his maiden first-class half-century.Venugopal Rao’s 77 took Andhra to 215 for 6 against Kerala in Anantapur, in another crucial Group B match. Kerala struck regularly throughout the day but Rao forged two partnerships – including a 79-run stand with B Sumanth for the fourth wicket – that took Andhra to a respectable score. Andhra were hampered by the manner in which their batsmen perished after getting off to starts, with only Rao getting past 50.Vidarbha built on a solid opening partnership to reach 295 for 6 against Jammu & Kashmir at the Gandhi Memorial Science College Ground in Jammu. Amit Deshpande and Jayesh Dongaonkar added 72 runs upfront before medium-pacer Raman Dutta took three wickets as Vidarbha slipped to 141 for 4. Ravi Jangid and Shalabh Shrivastava rescued their side with a 128-run stand. Jangid hit 15 fours in his maiden first-class hundred before falling for 103, but Shrivastava was unbeaten on 72 at stumps. Dutta took a career-best 4 for 87.

Group A

Ishank Jaggi’s unbeaten century enabled Jharkhand to make 254 for 7 at the Field Club Ground in Udaipur against Rajasthan. Jaggi, the captain, and Shiv Gautam, the wicketkeeper put on 134 runs after Jharkhand had been reduced to 90 for 4. However, legspinner Vivek Yadav dismissed Gautam for 60, and Jharkhand lost two more late wickets to lose their way again. Jaggi remained unbeaten on 116 at the end of the day.Madhya Pradesh, level on points with Rajasthan at the top of the group, would be a worried lot after the entire day’s play was washed out in their game against Hyderabad at the Gymkhana Ground. Hyderabad handed out debuts to five players.Tripura took the lead for the first time this season, blowing away Goa for 112 before making 186 for 4 in Porvorim. The seam trio of Wilkin Mota, Rana Dutta and Timir Chanda were the only bowlers used by Tripura, and they took less than 35 overs to bowl Goa out. The highest score for Goa was 16 as Mota and Chanda finished with four wickets apiece. Tripura’s batsmen made sure the bowlers’ efforts weren’t wasted, cantering to a lead that they will look to build on. Nishit Shetty led the way with an unbeaten 63. Mota weighed in with the bat as well, hitting eight fours in his 38.

Scorecard
Brad Hodge was in typically fine Twenty20 form•Getty Images

Brad Hodge used a rare prime-time TV appearance to remind the wider Australian public of his talent, but his 84 from 50 balls was not enough for the ACA All-Stars against a fan-voted XI at the Gabba. Matthew Hayden came out of his semi-retirement to captain the Aussie Fans’ XI to victory in a match that also featured the West Indian Twenty20 star Kieron Pollard.The exhibition match has been put on for the past couple of years by the Australian Cricketers’ Association as a curtain-raiser to the home summer, but lost some of its impetus this season as the Australians have already hosted Sri Lanka for an ODI series. There were several domestic players still keen to impress, although the strongest performances came from the veterans.David Hussey (42) set up a strong total of 8 for 191 for the Aussie Fans’ XI, after Hayden managed 34 using the oddly-proportioned Mongoose bat. The young Victorian batsman Aaron Finch showed his promise with a quick 30 and Mitchell Marsh made 23, while the left-arm spin of Aaron O’Brien (3 for 26) was difficult to get away.In reply, the ACA All-Stars – the domestic players voted for the team members after last season’s Big Bash – fell five runs short despite the best efforts of Hodge. His innings featured four sixes and reminded the national selectors – if they needed any further proof – that he remains one of the most dangerous limited-overs players in Australia.David Warner also made a handy 43 from 33 balls, but when Hodge fell towards the end of the chase it left 20 needed from the final over. In the interests of a close finish, Hayden decided to bowl the over himself and with six needed from the final ball, he had Lee Carseldine caught on the long-on boundary by Finch.However, the match did come at a cost. Tim Paine, Australia’s backup wicketkeeper, was sent to hospital after being struck on the right hand by a delivery from Dirk Nannes, and the Australian and Tasmanian selectors will be closely monitoring his injury with a big summer ahead.