The rain was the major discussion point at the post-match presentation, where Adam Gilchrist was named Man of the Match for his 162 from 146 balls. Ricky Ponting was disappointed Australia would have to go to Auckland to seal the series, and Stephen Fleming said a host of changes would be considered before the final Test.Ricky Ponting
On the match
It’s been a pretty disappointing week. We’ve done everything we possibly could to get a result, but the weather hasn’t been kind to us. Now we have to play well at Auckland.On pushing for the win today
We had enough time to win [if the rain stayed away], but we had to bowl well. If we had 60-odd overs at them we would’ve had enough chances, but that’s all hindsight.On the innings of Damien Martyn and Adam Gilchrist
Damien wasn’t as solid as he would have liked early on, but he got through the early period and played beautifully. Gilly was his normal self, aggressive from the word go, that was crucial for us to set up the rest of the game.On the bowling performance
There was no let off from the three fast bowlers and then Warney comes on. There was enough in the wicket with the new ball all the way through, and there was enough there for Warney, but we’ve come away with a drawOn Michael Kasprowicz getting his 100th wicket
We’d spoken about it before the innings and it’s a great milestone for him. He’s been in and out of side, but now he’s been outstanding and has cemented his place.Stephen Fleming
On being saved by the rain
It got us out of jail so we’re not too disappointed with it. We had an opportunity on the first morning, which we didn’t take, then we were on the back foot with Gilchrist’s batting. It was disjointed weather-wise, but there were still areas of concern.On why the players are not performing
Part of it is pressure, being put under pressure by Australia and not responding.On his batting and scores of 0 and 1
I’m disappointed I’m not doing my job, which is first and foremost to score runs at the top of the order and help the guys out. My stats are poor and I’ve got work to do before the next Test.On changes for the next Test
There are a lot of thoughts about a lot things that will be digested and discussed tonight. Hopefully we can sort those out and steal the last Test.On the success of Daniel Vettori and Lou Vincent
We need Vettori to be assisted, we’ve got to give him some runs to help him. Vincent got some runs and that is the key thing for the top order, they have to get the job done. That’s going to be the philosophy for the Sri Lanka series as well, there’s still a lot of Test cricket to be played.Adam Gilchrist
On Australia’s display
It was a good all-round performance but we were frustrated by the weather. The openers Justin [Langer] and Matty [Hayden] really did the hard work on a wicket that helped their fast bowlers, Marto [Damien Martyn] gusted it out when it was doing a bit more, and great credit to the bowlers for knocking them over.On his super form
I’m seeing the ball well, which is an indicator for me that it’s going well. I’m looking at the ball, really focussing on it in the bowler’s hand, which I’ve never done before. I started it in one-dayers after a few low scores.On closing in on Chris Cairns’s six-hitting world record
Mine just clear the rope, Cairnsy’s usually go out of the ground. They’re statistics that as players were not really aware of. It’s not an intentional thing

After a season which he will want to forget, Stephen Fleming at least had the solace of ending on a high with an innings victory over Sri Lanka. But no sooner had the dust settled on the Wellington Test then he was being asked about the tour of Zimbabwe in August.”If the information that I read suggests it’s not wise to go and that will make a difference, then that’s something I’ll consider,” Fleming told reporters, hinting that it is far from certain that he will make the trip. “Like the other players I’ll be reading a lot, watching the situation closely and trying to educate myself on what impact the tour will have. The players will take a lot of care over the decision and make sure it’s the right one in their mind for the right reasons.”But while the Zimbabwe tour will take centre stage in the coming weeks, yesterday Fleming was happy to dwell on a rare success. “It’s a special victory about coming back from the canvas to get some perspective on the whole summer,” he explained. “That was the goal of this series and it was rewarding. It was special for the young guys who have only experienced Test defeats. We were just happy to be in a commanding position and enjoying the fact we had a team under pressure for once this summer … we’d been under the pump for so long we forget how to enjoy the game. This game we made a pact to enjoy it and that shone through today. It was a pretty flat wicket. It was a good effort to bowl them out in a day’s play.”Fleming will be flying to England to join Nottinghamshire in the next few days.

Another Chennai Test, another Australia collapse. Those who were here three years ago could tell you that it wasn’t Harbhajan Singh’s 15 wickets or Sachin Tendulkar’s century that won India the series. No, it was Steve Waugh’s hand. When the man renowned for his steely temperament decided to play catch with a Harbhajan delivery that was spinning back towards the stumps, Australia were 3 for 340, and on course to give India the hiding to end all hidings. Matthew Hayden was at his intimidating best at the other end, and Waugh himself had seldom been troubled during his innings.But that momentary lapse of reason left the door ajar for Harbhajan, and a little over an hour later, Australia had subsided to 391 all out. The world champions don’t do anything by halves, and when they lose the plot, it can make the average B-grade Bollywood potboiler look coherent. At Kolkata a week earlier, with VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid having played the innings of their lives, Australia were handily placed to salvage a draw on the final day, going to tea at 3 for 161, with the Hayden-Waugh combination occupying the crease.But once Waugh was caught in the close-in cordon by Hemang Badani, the last seven batsmen were loath to make the scorers work unduly hard, adding only 46 more before subsiding to 212 all out. This penchant for stunning collapses hasn’t been restricted to matches in India either. In the series opener against India at Brisbane last year, Australia went from 2 for 268 to 323 all out. And in the Adelaide match, where they lost despite piling up an imposing 556 in the first innings, the last five second-innings wickets added just 13.Of course, only a foolish punter would write off Australia’s chances here. In Sri Lanka a few months ago, they conceded first-innings leads of 161 and 91 in the first two Tests, storming back to win both despite a certain Muttiah Muralitharan being in opposition. But the stumble from 2 for 189 to 235 today certainly gives India hope. Like the boxer who strives incessantly for a knockout despite being way ahead on points, Australia remain suspect to the sucker punch, and Anil Kumble’s haymaker certainly laid them out cold.

Ricky Ponting has said that the result of the NatWest Series final at Lord’s has whetted his side’s appetite for the three-match NatWest Challenge one-day series, which starts on July 7. England fought back magnificently to force a tie on Saturday after being reduced to 33 for 5 while chasing 197, and Ponting claimed that his team was now eager to win back the upper hand over the next week.”With there being no result in this series, it will make us even keener to perform better in the next one,” he said. “It’s probably going to be good for the next series that this one has finished the way it has. We’ve got three games against England without Bangladesh and we’re looking forward to them.”Looking back at Saturday’s game, Ponting reckoned that a total of 196 should have been enough on a pitch where the ball bounced and seamed all day. “I felt it was a game we should have won. It was a very difficult wicket to bat on and close to 200 was a good score. I don’t think too much went wrong. We beat the bat I don’t know how many times early on when Jones and Collingwood were first in there but I thought their partnership was very good.”To have a tie in the final is a pretty fair reflection of the series. I’m disappointed we didn’t win but that’s one of the best games of one-day cricket you’ll ever see.”Michael Vaughan, meanwhile, was all praise for the sixth-wicket pair of Paul Collingwood and Geraint Jones, who put together 116 and brought England back into the game when all seemed lost. “Geraint played beautifully and Colly really hung in there. It just gave us a chance of getting close to their target. That was the pleasing thing, that we showed a lot of character when we looked like we were down and out.”For Jones, it was a return to form after a lean run with the bat – his four previous innings in the tournament had only fetched him 27 runs. “I needed some time in the middle, it was nice to spend a bit of time out there and get some runs,” he said after the match. “I knew I had to hang in there and be as patient as I could and get as close to the end with Colly as I could. That was the mindset there. It was quite an important innings in the situation of the game. We were in trouble early on but Paul and I had a great partnership there to get the team close. I’m more happy with that than anything personal.” With five catches to go with his 71 – the highest score of the match – Jones was the obvious choice for the Man-of-the-Match award.

Sourav Ganguly, India’s captain, has stoked the rivalry between his team and the touring Australians ahead of the first Test, which starts at Bangalore on October 6.”The Aussies know that we are the only side that comes hard at them, and that will be a huge psychological advantage for us,” Ganguly told AFP. “I am certain they are worried about playing us. We are always formidable at home and they know it. I am not saying we will certainly win the series – you can’t predict that – but it will be a very, very close contest.”The Aussies bring out the best in us,” Ganguly continued, “and I am confident the same will happen again despite a very ordinary start to the season, where we played poor cricket.”Australia, who last won a Test series on Indian soil in 1969 under Bill Lawry, have lost five of the last seven Tests they have played there since 1996. In 2001, India fought back from a drubbing in the first Test to win the next two and grab a stunning 2-1 series victory in the final match. When they toured Australia last year, India managed to hold them to a 1-1 draw.”Maybe you are only as good as the team you lead, but I have never shirked away from the responsibility given to me,” he added. “It’s my job to lead from the front. There will always be a lot said when we are not doing well, but in the end what matters is that the captain and the team are willing to stand up and be counted.”When asked whether Sachin Tendulkar’s likely absence from the first Test due to a tennis elbow injury would give Australia the edge, Ganguly countered: “I think the Aussies will be hurt more by the absence of captain Ricky Ponting. It affects the team when the captain is not around, and the Australians are no exception. It will put them under a lot of pressure.”Ponting has been ruled out of the first two Tests of the four-match series with a broken thumb. He suffered the injury while fielding during Australia’s defeat to England in the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy last month. Adam Gilchrist has been named as the stand-in captain during his absence.

Gloucestershire have agreed new contracts with Chris Taylor, their four-day captain in 2004, and slow left-armer Ian Fisher. Both have signed three-year deals.Taylor, 28, scored 1077 runs, including four hundreds, in 2004 and led Gloucestershire to sixth place in the County Championship. He said: “I’m delighted to have signed an extended deal and am really looking forward to next season. Hopefully, it will be another successful one.””We are obviously really pleased Chris has signed his new contract,”Tom Richardson, Gloucestershire’s chief executive, added. “He had a good year as captain and batted and fielded extremely well.”Fisher took 23 wickets and became a regular member of the one-day side towards the end of the summer.James Pearson, a 21-year old opening batsman, has not played a first-class game for Gloucestershire since 2002 but was given a new one-year contract.

Sir Donald Bradman’s Adelaide home will be heritage-listed in a decision that is against his wishes. Bradman fiercely opposed the move before his death, and was also upset by plans aiming to cash in on his name.The two-storey, red-brick house in Kensington Park was initially recommended for state heritage listing in 1987, but the plan was dropped when Bradman objected. In a letter written three years before his death Bradman said: “At 89 years of age I am not prepared to exist just to satisfy the autograph-hunters’ requests. People just seem to want my signature before I die.”But an Adelaide council is again trying to celebrate the home in a move that has drawn criticism from Bradman’s supporters. “Sir Don Bradman was against it being listed because of his privacy issues and that’s understandable,” John Hanlon, the council’s chief executive officer, told ABC Radio. “However, we have now decided to list that property and, I might add, we haven’t received any objections from the family in relation to that.”Bradman’s grand-daughter Greta said the family accepted that heritage listing of the home was inevitable. The Don moved to Kensington Park from Sydney in 1935 and died there on February 25, 2001.

The ECB’s decision to sell all live cricket to satellite broadcaster BSkyB has again come under attack, this time from Andy Duncan, the chief executive of Channel 4, whose contract to cover cricket end with the Oval Test next month.Speaking at the Edinburgh International TV festival, Duncan warned that the ECB’s decision could lead to a generation missing out. “It was not that damaging for us,” he said. “It’s hugely damaging for cricket. It’s a huge mistake they have made.”They’ve gone for the money and will probably spend that on building county clubs or in paying overseas players. They’ve got more money, but in a next few years’ cricket won’t be seen.”The ECB maintain that Channel 4 could have bid, but Duncan said that it was not economic for them to try to match other offers. Although viewing figures this summer had hit record levels, he argued this was a one-off and that when BSkyB had a monopoly in 2006 there would be a “huge drop off”.Duncan’s comments come hard on the heels of similar remarks from Luke Johnson, Channel 4’s chairman. He said: “Our view is that the ECB did a very bad deal for the sport. They didn’t handle the negotiations well. They were short-term. They went for the money. We tried to bring it to the attention of the relevant people at the ECB,” he continued. “But what happened is that there are certain factions in the ECB and they took charge of the negotiations and they are very commercially minded.”Giles Clarke, the chairman of Somerset and the head of the ECB marketing committee that did the deal, explained that not to have gone with BSkyB would have meant a marked reduction in income for cricket in England. “We would have to tell Duncan Fletcher we are cutting your budget,” he said. “Twenty-five per cent of our broadcast income goes to support the England team. What would the media have said then?”

Mark Taylor has joined a growing number of Australian players to back Ricky Ponting as captain despite the “over-reaction” to the Ashes loss. Taylor, who was in charge when Australia became world champions in 1995, said the defeat “may be the making” of Ponting after Dennis Lillee called for his sacking.”We’ve seen Ricky Ponting and the Australian side winning everything,” Taylor told , “but sometimes you need a loss to sit down and say ‘what can I do, what can we do as a leadership group do to make things better?’ If you can turn it around you can bounce back and become a better leader.”As most of the squad returned to Australia yesterday, Adam Gilchrist, Glenn McGrath, Justin Langer and Michael Kasprowicz believed Ponting should continue as leader. A report in said Ponting also had the support of Bob Merriman, the Cricket Australia chairman, and at least five members of the board.The paper said a review of the tour had already begun with Taylor, Allan Border and Daryl Foster, the bowling coach, investigating all aspects of the trip as well as looking into Australian cricket at all levels. Taylor said there was always going to be an over-reaction to the series loss and was not surprised by the mood.However, Taylor said both Ponting and Michael Vaughan did not show enough imagination with their tactical decisions during the series. “To be critical, I thought both captains at times were either full-on or full-off,” Taylor said in . “It was either four slips, two gullies and a bat-pad or no slips, deep point, deep third man, deep backward square, deep fine leg.””One of the things you don’t want to do is panic in a situation like this,” Kasprowicz said in . While the future of Ponting is safe Kasprowicz, who played in two Tests and took four wickets, is waiting for news from Trevor Hohns, the chairman of selectors.”[Hohns] said straight: `I can’t tell you where things sit. We just don’t know yet’,” Kasprowicz said. Decisions will be made quickly as the Super Series starts in three weeks.

The appointment of the Australian umpire Darrell Hair to next month’s Super Series has revived memories of his calling of Muttiah Muralitharan for throwing in Melbourne almost 10 years ago. Muralitharan has been named in the World XI squads against Australia for the three limited-overs games in Melbourne and the Test from October 14-19 at the SCG. Hair will stand in the second and third ODI matches.Hair controversially no-balled Muralitharan seven times for throwing during the second Test at the MCG on December 27, 1995, and Muralitharan refused to tour Australia in 2004 for the two-Test series in Darwin and Cairns citing hostility from Australian crowds. Muralitharan, who is second to Shane Warne with 563 Test wickets, only returned to play in Australia last January in the tsunami charity game in Melbourne.The ICC named Hair, 52, in the panel of four umpires on Friday for the Super Series along with Pakistan’s Aleem Dar, South Africa’s Rudi Koertzen and the Australian Simon Taufel. Taufel, who has never umpired a Test in his home state, will stand in the Super Test alongside Koertzen while Sri Lanka’s Ranjan Madugalle will be match referee for the four games.New technology will be trialled during the Super Series with a system of referral and consultation between the on-field officials and the TV umpire being used in the four matches. “Run outs and stumpings will be referred in the normal way to the TV umpire with the TV umpire making the final decision,” the ICC said. “But in respect of all other decisions, the on-field umpires will have the discretion to consult with the TV umpire before making the final decision.”