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Herschelle Gibbs has completed his rehabilitation programme and is now preparing for South Africa’s one-day series in Australia.Gibbs was ordered by Cricket South Africa to undergo an alcohol-related rehabilitation course after a number of incidents over recent years. At the weekend he finished his month-long stay at a Hout Bay clinic, near Cape Town, and then headed straight for the gym to prepare for the trip to Australia.Gibbs’s father, Herman, said his son felt the experience had been beneficial. “I was a little scared that it would perhaps cause a personality change, but he was as cheeky as always when he came out,” he told .It was tough regime for Gibbs inside the clinic, his day starting at 7am and including a lot of hiking. His mobile phone was taken away and when he switched it on after his release he had 200 missed calls and 96 messages.

After three straightforward victories against the two best teams in the world, Mahendra Singh Dhoni discovered today that Test-match captaincy won’t always be a bed of fragrant blooms. Despite losing Andrew Flintoff with no addition to the overnight total, England’s tail defied India till mid-afternoon, by which time the behaviour of the pitch had made it obvious that 316 wasn’t a total to sneer at.India’s recent successes, under Dhoni or Anil Kumble, have usually had one common factor, a rollicking opening partnership. When Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir get going, they don’t just score at thrilling pace. They play with such flair and confidence that the opposition tend to get dispirited. It happened in Galle against Sri Lanka and in Mohali against Australia.When the opening gambit doesn’t work, India look increasingly vulnerable and noticeably less confident. It doesn’t help that the man who was once the cornerstone of the batting is going through the deepest trough of his career, and it’s almost become a default setting for the positive approach to be abandoned as soon as Sehwag gets out.”The kind of cricket Sehwag plays, he looks to dominate and you may get out early on,” Dhoni said late in the day, when asked whether India were now over-reliant on Delhi’s daredevils. “That is part and parcel of it, but we want Viru to do that [dominate]. That’s his strategy, game-plan and strength and he has scored lots of runs with that.”While Sehwag chopping a James Anderson delivery on to his stumps was a sickening blow for the dressing room, the real damage was done in a bizarre debut over from Graeme Swann. He started with a ball that “my mum would have hit for four”, but finished with Gambhir and Dravid back in the pavilion.”We were not complacent,” Dhoni said. “You’re bound to get good players [out] in international cricket. You are bound to go through spells that are good, in which people will be bowling in the right areas. It happens.”Swann bowled well. If you see the balls with which he has taken the wickets … Gautam got a ball that was going on to the stumps, and Rahul too got a really good one.”A measured 61-run partnership between Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman briefly threatened an Indian revival, but after finishing the day six down and with only the tail for company, Dhoni insisted India hadn’t been too cavalier. “At times when you play shots, it does not really pay off. We have also seen the bowlers bowling well, giving opportunities to score boundaries off them. We have had one off day on the field but we have been doing well in Test cricket. At times, you will be outplayed in international cricket. Today, that was the case, with England bowling really well.”The credit goes to them for creating pressure with the new-ball. They were bowling just back of length and getting good bounce. That’s the kind of bowling Fred [Flintoff], Anderson and Harmison do.”

India’s chances of survival weren’t helped by the loss of the birthday boy late in the day. Yuvraj Singh appeared to react to some barbs from Flintoff, but his headspace was probably just as messed up by a magnificent spell of fast bowling from round the wicket. Teased and tormented, he then stuck the bat out at an angle when Harmison returned for one final burst.”I know Yuvraj very well,” Dhoni said when asked if the left-hander had been baited into the dismissal. “I don’t think he got out because of that chitchat between him and Freddie. You could say it was bad shot selection. But you can also say that it adds a bit of excitement to the game.”Having won at Eden Gardens and Adelaide, scene of one of English cricket’s most soul-destroying days, India certainly won’t be contemplating defeat just yet. “We will look to score 250 when we come here tomorrow with the lower order,” Dhoni said. “It will be tough. In the past also, we’ve seen Test matches where sides get a 100-run lead and still lose the match. Yes, we are in a difficult position and England have the upper hand right now.”Questions were also asked of his decision not to take the second new-ball. Dhoni though had no regrets. “It was reverse-swinging at that time,” he said. “In Test matches, you can see whenever the new ball is taken, runs are scored. The fast bowlers were also a bit tired. When you have an attacking field, the opposition is bound to get boundaries.”India will need a few of their own on the third morning to ensure a match they were expected to dominate doesn’t slide too far out of reach.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Drama. Farce. Jangling nerves. A great catch. Controversy. A run out. Phew. Game over. Hyderabad Heroes won a thrilling eight-run victory to push the ICL championship into the third final. Abdul Razzaq shocked the top order and Chris Harris rocked the middle to shove Lahore Badshahs to an unexpected defeat.Lahore needed 27 runs from 14 balls when the catch was taken. Mohammad Sami swung to left of long-off where Justin Kemp twisted his body, stretched his right hand out, dived, plucked the ball, held his balance, and fell inside the boundary line. Controversy followed. The game stopped for at least five minutes as Lahore thought Kemp had touched the boundary. So Sami waited, the crowd sat puzzled, Harris called his men to the edge of the boundary and Inzamam had a chat with the umpires. A complete farce.Inzamam finally signalled Sami to get into the dugout and the new batsman walked in. The argument between the two dugouts continued and angry words were exchanged between Azhar Mahmood and Steve Rixon, Hyderabad’s coach.The game wasn’t over, yet, though. Saqlain picked 12 runs off Razzaq in the 19th over with a six and a four and the equation reduced to nine runs from six balls. Shahid Nazir panicked first ball as he failed to connect with the shot and tried to steal a leg bye but was caught out by a direct hit from Chris Harris.The end only reflected what a strange match it was. Lahore appeared to have got one hand on the trophy when they restricted Hyderabad to 158 but stumbled badly in the chase. The spirited duo of Sami and Saqlain got them close in the end but the chase lacked firepower at the start.Razzaq harassed Imran Nazir with length deliveries that shaped away before ending his misery with an in dipper. He struck again almost immediately removing Naved-ul-Hasan with the one that straightened off a length to hit the off stump.Shahid Yousuf created some momentum with a brisk innings. He hit Razzaq for three boundaries in the fifth over and slammed four boundaries that included one big six over long-on off Stuart Binny. Imran Farhat, who remained a patient witness to the Yousuf attack, fell to a rush of blood to trigger a collapse. He charged out to Nicky Boje, only to be stumped leaving Lahore wobbling at 53 for 3.Harris tightened the noose further by luring Mohammad Yousuf to hole out to the cow corner and Shahid Yousuf to feather a catch down the leg side. And when Inzamam swept Inder Shekhar Reddy straight to long-leg, it was all but over. Lahore needed 72 from 44 balls and the lower order, especially Sami and Saqlain, tried their best but couldn’t finish it.Earlier, Saqlain and Shahid Nazir had triggered Lahore’s comeback after Jimmy Maher had got Hyderabad to a flier. It was a fine little innings from Maher who hit through the line repeatedly against the new ball. Mohammad Sami was lifted over mid-on and mid-off, Azhar Mahmood was hit through wide mid-on and midwicket and Naved was hit to long-on and cut over point. The shot of his innings, though, was a disdainful swat past mid-on off Shahid Nazir. In between Imran dropped Maher and Shahid Nazir gave Ibrahim Khaleel a reprieve.The game swung around with the introduction of Saqlain. Maher had charged to Hyderabad to 63 for 0 in six overs when Saqlain started the stranglehold. He got quite a few to turn in, got some to go straight on and broke a few the other way. Shahid Nazir produced a swinging yorker to remove Maher and hurled a beamer that forced Ibrabhim Khaleel to retire hurt. The twin acts were enough to send Hyderabad in a spin. Saqlain squeezed the runs and the seamers returned to pick up wickets.At the end of the 11th over the score read 102 for 1 but they added only 56 in the next nine overs as Hyderabad lost the plot. But they regrouped really well to register a dramatic victory.

Cheeky captain
Was it a surprise that Anil Kumble won the toss? No, because he had a practice run before the actual toss. Immediately after he got the coin from Chris Broad, the match referee, Kumble flipped it only to realise mid-flight that they were not on air as yet. So Kumble caught the coin before it could land. Shrewdly he must have studied the coin’s behaviour pattern, and flipped it the next time in a way that it landed in India’s favour, and that too way off the pitch where the toss happened. Welcome back, captain.Home ground blues
A century in front of his home crowd has eluded Virender Sehwag. In his only Test at the Kotla – he was out of the side when India played Pakistan here last year – he scored 74 against Zimbabwe in 2002. Even in the three ODIs he has played here, he has managed a best of 42 against England in 2002. Today, as a result of frozen feet, he made sure he will have to wait longer to get a century on his home ground. The second ball he faced was a fast in-swinger from Brett Lee, Sehwag’s feet stayed rooted, and he played outside the line of the ball. Umpire Aleem Dar had no hesitation in sending Sehwag off. Gambhir, though, who scored 2 and 3 in his first match here – against Sri Lanka in 2005-06, brought up his hundred after tea.The upper-cut from hell
Lee, who has had an ordinary series so far, built up consistent pace today. In the first over after lunch, he dug one in short. Sachin Tendulkar, well entrenched by then, waited for it to rise, arched his back a bit to make room, and guided it over slip. The shot was delicate and breathtaking at the same time. Lee’s pace almost carried it for a six.Man of his word
“If we are behind by five overs or so, yes I won’t be giving Brett a bowl,” Ricky Ponting said at his pre-match conference. And so it happened. By drinks in the middle session, Australia had managed only 40 overs, behind by – yes – five overs. And there Ponting proved he would keep his word: he didn’t bowl Lee until the 62nd over. The corrective measure, though, didn’t prove too fruitful for Australia. From the moment Cameron White came on, Gambhir and Tendulkar ripped into him. The first ball he bowled was cut away towards point boundary, the third one was driven to extra-cover boundary. In the four overs he bowled, he visited the boundary often enough to negate his quick over-rate. In the end, by 4.30pm, the scheduled close of play, Australia had managed only 81 overs.How not to use the elbow
In the 51st over of the innings, Gambhir flicked Shane Watson to midwicket, and the bowler was not impressed. As Gambhir ran down for the first run, he saw Shane Watson gesticulating and muttering something to him. So, on his way back for the second, Gambhir apparently got his own back, thrusting his elbow into Watson’s ribs. Time for the match referee to do some overtime: mischievous captains at toss, slow over rates, and now quarrelling children to sort out.How to get to 100
Gambhir has played a lot of cricket with Sehwag, and some of it seems to have rubbed on to him. At 99, when Gambhir tried to steer Watson to the third man boundary, Michael Hussey made a diving save to keep Gambhir put. But to the next ball, the batsman stepped out, and lofted Watson over wide long-on for a six to bring up the landmark. Sehwag would have approved. At any rate, the six worked better than the elbow earlier during the day.How not to appeal
Brad Haddin was the most desperate man at the Kotla today. Twice he almost went up in appeals when the batsmen had leg-glanced off the face of the bat. The heights of desperation, though, were reached when Lee appealed for an lbw against Gambhir. Umpire Billy Bowden shook his head “no”, but the ball had already lobbed to Michael Hussey at wide third slip. Out went the lbw appeal, and in came one for a catch, Haddin looking at the umpire with his left hand pointing to Hussey. The perseverance, at least, cannot be faulted.

Major shoulder surgery would be enough to end the careers of most 38-year-old fast bowlers. However, Andy Bichel has put his serious injury problem behind him and will launch his comeback via the Queensland Academy of Sport Second XI side early next month.Bichel is hopeful of playing a key role in Queensland’s Sheffield Shield season once he proves he has fully recovered from the injury, which kept him to three first-class games last summer. He started his return on the weekend when he bowled for the first time in nearly a year, taking 0 for 18 from five overs at club level.”It was just nice to run in and bowl again,” Bichel told . “It’s a good starting point.”His major test will come when he takes the ball in the second XI clash against the South Australia Second XI in Adelaide starting on November 3. Bichel will be lining up alongside Alister McDermott, the fast-bowling son of Bichel’s former Queensland team-mate Craig McDermott.”When you start playing against a bloke’s son – yeah, that makes you feel your age,” Bichel said. “But I feel fit and fresh and ready to go around again.”

Haroon Lorgat, the ICC’s chief executive, says that cricket’s governing body will not sacrifice bilateral cricket for Twenty20 leagues and try to regulate the latest format to ensure that.”All these tournaments are springing up and what we are trying to do is regulate them in a more effective way,” Lorgat told the . “A private businessman might have different ambitions but we have to protect the game of cricket.”Twenty20 is an opportunity that people have spotted they can take advantage of, but that doesn’t detract from what has been agreed by all members that we will not sacrifice nation-v-nation cricket. Everyone recognises its importance. People are not disregarding it.”There has been plenty of criticism of the growing importance put on Twenty20 cricket, a lucrative proposition across the globe. Most of it has centered around the IPL’s second edition, provisionally scheduled for April-May 2009, which clashes with Sri Lanka’s tour of England and its third season, which will clash with Bangladesh’s tour of England.”Out of a difficult situation can come a lot of good,” Lorgat said. “If there wasn’t an interest in the sport there wouldn’t be so many challenges. I would rather come into a scenario where things are moving at great speed, with new forms of cricket and a new audience.”The first edition of the IPL, devised by BCCI vice-president Lalit Modi, was a huge success and the inaugural Champions League – backed by the Indian board – will be held in India from December 3-10, where two teams each from India, Australia and South Africa, and Middlesex and Pakistan’s Twenty20 champion will compete.The second Champions Twenty20 League will take place next year between September 25-October 10, and will feature 12 teams, four more than the first edition. Even the unofficial ICL will be starting its third season from October 10.

An 89 from Khurram Manzoor, the Pakistan Academy captain, held the innings together in response to Zimbabwe Board XI’s 328 at the Harare Sports Club. The Zimbabwe bowlers capped a satisfactory day in the field to keep the visitors in check with five wickets, an improvement after they failed to build on their overnight score of 300 for 6. Pakistan ended the second day with a deficit of 82.Trevor Garwe, the seamer, was rewarded for his continued probing before lunch when he had Umar Ameen caught behind for 23. Garwe was, however, fortunate to claim Raheel Majeed, adjudged lbw to a delivery that appeared to sail over the top of leg stump. Majeed registered his disapproval with the umpire before walking.Manzoor added some stability to the innings by patiently holding one end up. He saw off the shine of the new ball but threw his wicket away by trying to take on Graeme Cremer. After lofting the previous ball for four over the bowler’s head, he miscued the next to backward square-leg and was caught by Samuel Mwakayeni.The Zimbabwe bowlers performed better than they did in the first game, but were not able to pick wickets at regular intervals. That prompted the captain Cremer to keep rotating his bowlers.

Hong Kong will meet UAE in the ACC Elite Trophy final, having beaten Afghanistan by 25 runs in the semi-final at the Kinrara Academy Oval in Kuala Lumpur. Spinners Ilyas Gull and Nadeem Ahmed took three wickets each as Afghanistan were bowled out for 129 – the last six wickets falling for 41 runs – while chasing 155. Hong Kong’s top order failed for a third time in the row, collapsing to 25 to 5, and it was the lower order that breathed life into the innings. James Atkinson and Irfan Ahmed added 47 while No. 10 Najeeb Amar top scored with an unbeaten 29. Medium-pacer Hasti Gul was Afghanistan’s most successful bowler, taking 3 for 23. Ahmed Shah directed Afghanistan’s chase – adding 45 with Raees Ahmadzi – before Nadeem had him caught for 36. Afghanistan were bowled out in 43.4 overs and they will now play Nepal on Saturday in the third place play-off.An all-round effort from Khurram Khan helped UAE beat Nepal by six wickets in the other semi-final at the Selangor Turf Club. Khurram picked up 3 for 20 in 6.3 overs as Nepal were bowled out for 166. He took two wickets in two overs, inducing Nepal to stumble from 50 for 1 to 58 for 3. Shakti Gauchan led Nepal’s effort, scoring 35 and adding 49 for the fifth wicket with Sharad Vesawkar. UAE, though, chased the target comfortably as Arshad Ali and Amjad Ali laid the platform with a 61-run partnership, which Khurram built on in his unbeaten 72-run stand with Rameez Shahzad.Suhan Alagaratnam’s fast-paced century went in vain as Malaysia lost the battle for fifth place to Singapore by 18 runs at the Bayuemas Oval. Alagaratnam received little support from his team-mates – the highest partnership was the seventh-wicket stand of 37 with Nasir Ali – as he scored 107 off 111 balls, in pursuit of 230. Narender Reddy and Shoaib Razzak shared six wickets between them to bowl out Malaysia for 211. Reddy also chipped in with 32 runs and added 64 with opener Glenn Meyer, who made 75 off 115 balls. Dinesh Sockalingam, the legspinner who took six wickets in Malaysia’s previous game, added three more to his kitty today to lead the bowling charts with 18 scalps from five games.

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) will inform its top cricketers on Wednesday about the status of their England tour next year, Graeme Labrooy, the secretary of the Sri Lanka Cricketers’ Association (SLCA), said. The series clashes with the Indian Premier League for which 13 of them have signed three-year contracts.Labrooy told Cricinfo that two options are being actively explored to find a solution but the “bottomline is that players will be allowed to play in IPL”. “I have checked with the board’s CEO [Duleep Mendis], and I have been informed that they spoke to the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) on Friday and the options being considered are to hold a five-ODI series or rework the dates of the Test and one-day series,” Labrooy said. “The board expects a reply from the ECB tomorrow. The players will be notified about the situation on Wednesday.”Labrooy said that the Sri Lankan players are yet to commit themselves to a particular formula and are focussed on the India series starting on July 23.However, Cricinfo has learnt that the Sri Lankan cricketers privately prefer the five-ODI option towards the end of May – the IPL is scheduled to run from April 10 to May 29. Apparently, pushing back the Tests, which start on May 7, as late as possible and cutting the ODI series is another option, while possibly compensating some low-profile IPL players to take part, but there is concern about not playing warm-up matches due to it being early season in England.When asked about the players’ preference, Labrooy said: “The players have not committed to anything so far and are waiting for the board to get back to them. They are right now wrapped up in the India series. We have told them ‘Forget about this, just focus on the India series and we will look after this issue’. Actually, we have not even discussed the issue in detail with players because we don’t want to distract them ahead of the series against India. Of course, they are concerned but they have not taken any stand as yet.”On July 8, the ECB announced the dates for the Sri Lanka tour in 2009, which starts with a warm-up game against Leicestershire on April 21 and ends with the third and final one-day international against England on May 30. But two days later, following an intervention from the country’s president on behalf of the players, Mendis announced that the Sri Lankan players would be allowed to appear for the IPL and that a compromise would be worked out with the ECB.The hitch is that SLC officials have already signed tour contracts with the ECB for three pre-Test warm-up games, two Tests, a one-day practice game against Somerset and three ODIs that will be held between April 21 and May 30 – any shift would lead to financial losses for the English board and give rise to demands from England players to join the IPL for the same period.The tour was firmed up during the recent ICC conference in Dubai, where SLC’s interim committee chairman Arjuna Ranatunga agreed to the ECB’s request to fill in the slot vacated by Zimbabwe for the 2009 season. The 13 Sri Lankans on three-year contracts with the IPL franchises include Mahela Jayawardene, their captain, Kumar Sangakkara, the vice-captain, and Muttiah Muralitharan.

After weeks of backroom manoeuvring and two days of boardroom negotiations, the Zimbabwe issue was resolved with a compromise that sees them pulling out of the 2009 World Twenty20 in England yet retaining their Full Member status with access to full funding from the ICC.Zimbabwe, whose decision to pull out from the World Twenty20 cleared the roadblock for the competition to be staged in England, will receive its full participation fee for the tournament. The scenario prompted Ray Mali, whose term as ICC president ended today, to call it a “win-win solution”.”We have decided to pull out in the larger interests of the game,” Peter Chingoka, the chairman of Zimbabwe Cricket, told Cricinfo. “We have been informed that the British government may not grant visas to our players, and that situation may prevail during the Twenty20 World Cup. We don’t want to be gatecrashers; we will attend only those weddings to which we are invited.”Friday morning’s meeting of the ICC executive board, which spilled over into an unscheduled third day, lasted barely 20 minutes and wound up with sighs of relief, smiles all around and a group photo session that featured Mali’s successor David Morgan shaking hands warmly with Sharad Pawar, head of the Indian board and the ICC’s president-elect.The morning’s session was brief only because the principal players had been working through the night on an agreement that would avert a feared split within the ICC with England and South Africa ranged against India and other Asian countries over the propriety of Zimbabwe’s status as Full Member.In the end, India is believed to have played a key role in the compromise, especially in convincing Zimbabwe that the issue was not about membership of the ICC but about getting back into world cricket.”We have consulted and exchanged notes with everybody, including our Indian friends, last night,” Chingoka said. “We are now looking forward to more tours and international cricket with our Asian friends, especially India.”

Mali, it is learnt, also played his part last night in allaying Zimbabwean fears over their future. “Ray Mali, Dave Richardson, Haroon Lorgat and I decided on an adjournment yesterday to take the discussions forward. Mali took the lead (in resolving the issue),” Morgan said, before admitting “there were a number of private meetings after the adjournment.”Morgan said the issue of Zimbabwe’s membership was never discussed at the board meeting, which “unanimously” accepted the country’s “voluntary proposal” to pull out of the World Twenty20. There were different views on the issue during the hectic discussions, he acknowledged, but dismissed talk of the ICC being divided as a “mistake”.”It was a collective decision and I was a part of that decision,” SharadPawar, the BCCI president, confirmed to Cricinfo.Zimbabwe’s re-integration into mainstream cricket, and possibly the FTP, will be overseen by a three-member ICC sub-committee headed by Julian Hunte, the president of the West Indies Cricket Board, and including Arjuna Ranatunga, the president of Sri Lanka Cricket, and an ICC official yet to be confirmed. Hunte and Ranatunga are ICC board members and were part of the official discussions over Zimbabwe here in Dubai.The sub-committee will advise the ICC board on all matters relating to Zimbabwe cricket; specific terms of reference for its operation have not yet been finalised but it’s believed that it will report back to the ICC board in November.The only window of uncertainty now is the one month that Chingoka has been given to get his board’s approval for the arrangement, including the pullout from the World Twenty20. Chingoka calls the shots in ZC so this effectively gives him time to reassess his position, especially if he develops any second thoughts over the compromise.