WHAT SYMONDS SAID?

There has been a lot of contrevorsy going on between the Indian and Australian camp on the spat between Symonds and Ishant Sharma.Nobody knows what was exchanged between the two players and now Symonds has come forward with what he told Ishant.He said that he actually complemented Ishant for foxing him with a beauty on the penultimate over of the first innings.Symonds one of the richest players in IPL has been caught by contrevorsies for his onfield behaviour.Symonds said that he was shocked by Ishant's reaction to his complement and he did not expect it from the young paceman.

TV cameras clearly showed the burly Australian all rounder provoking the 19-year-old pace sensation into letting off steam.

Symonds also found support from former Australian wicketkeeper Ian Healy who said that lip readers from an Australian channel detected Symonds saying, "Good bowl, champ."

"However both players could have behaved better," Healy said.

INDIA AND SRILANKA FINED

India and Sri Lanka have been fined for their slow over rates in Tuesday's Commonwealth Bank Series game in Adelaide.

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was fined 10% of his match fee and his players 5% after they were found to be one over short of their target.

And with Sri Lanka deemed to be two overs short, skipper Mahela Jayawardene incurred a 20% fine and his players 10%.

Jeff Crowe of the Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees said: "The over rates for all teams in this series so far have been pedestrian at times with teams failing to complete their full quota of overs in the stipulated time on several occasions.

"Allowances and early finishes have meant players have been fortunate to escape fines in previous matches and this is an area that all the sides need to give further attention to and improve upon.

"I will also talk to all the teams in the series before their next matches to remind them of their responsibilities."

ICC regulations state players are fined 5% of their match fees for every over not bowled inside the allotted time and the captain double that amount.

India won the game by two wickets and are second in the standings of the three-team tournament, which are headed by Australia.

INDIAN COLTS WIN THE OPENER

India had a reasonably tough workout against Papua New Guinea at Kinrara Oval in the first round of matches of the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2008 in Malaysia.

History will indicate that Virat Kohli’s side won by 195 runs but the truth is that PNG put in a disciplined display full of passion, commitment and no little skill. India had to play well to make sure it looked easy against the East Asia-Pacific qualifier.

Tanmay Srivastava was the backbone of the India batting and the number three ended up unbeaten on 83 as India managed 280-5 off 50 overs. Apart from a flurry of extras early in the innings, perhaps attributable to big-match nerves with the game being televised live by ICC’s host broadcaster ESPN STAR Sports, PNG bowled and fielded well and is clearly a well-drilled side.

But India showed it will not be an easy side to beat in this competition. After a spirited beginning to PNG’s innings, Pradeep Sangwan, Siddharth Kaul and, later, Ajitesh Argal and Iqbal Abdullah got in among the batsmen and eventually PNG collapsed to 85 all out.

GAVASKAR LIVID WITH MUNAF PATEL

Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar was livdid with Munaf patel's performance today against Australia.He lambasted Munaf for being the lethargic force in the Indian team.He also said that his fielding and batting were useless and he did not add value to the Indian team.He said that when picking the fifth bowler Piyush chawla or Praveen Kumar should have been picked because they had some batting ability.He said that there are many youngsters waiting for an Indian camp and warned Munaf to be serious about his cricket.He also mocked Patel for allowing three runs on a shorter boundary in Adelaide.

MATCH ABONDONED DUE TO RAIN

The second match of the tri nations series got abondoned due to rain again.This match played between India and Srilanka got abondoned at the Brisbane.India batted first again and this time around they started very well with a 68 before Sachin dragged it onto his stumps for 35 runs.Virender Sehwag played in an attacking fashion for 30 odd runs but India slumped quickly to 84 for four.Yuvraj Singh disappointed but Gautam Gambhir scored a brilliant 102 runs and Dhoni scored 88 runs to prop up the score to 267 for four in 50 overs.The match however stopped there as rain washed out the play.

GANGULY WARNS AUSTRALIA

Sourav Ganguly aka Dada has issued a stern warning to the Australians.Former captain Sourav Ganguly has warned Australia that its numero uno position in world cricket was under threat from Team India.

"Australia is still the No. 1 team in the world but I think we have a very good side that could be No. 1," Ganguly told an Australian newspaper after India won the Perth Test by 72 runs.

The southpaw said India had played better against Australia "than any other side in the world".

"To be honest, we have played better than them (this summer)," he told the Herald Sun.

Refusing to discuss the Sydney Test, he said: "I don't want to talk about the past but I feel we were unlucky not to win in Sydney. We were happy to win in Perth and we think we can level the series."

The former captain, who has been axed from the ODI team for the Commonwealth Bank Tri-Series in February, was of the view that Australia had failed to find players who were as threatening as Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne.

"They are finding out that players can't go on and play forever. Obviously they have less experience now. Their young players need to step up," he said.

The fourth and final Test starts at Adelaide on Thursday. Australia and India will then play a one-off Twenty20 match on February 1. The tri-series, that also features Sri Lanka, starts on February 3 with India taking on Australia.

DHONI MATURING AS A BATSMAN

India's crisis man VVS Laxman said on Friday MS Dhoni had matured over the last year and was now playing according to the situation the team was in.

"Dhoni realised that it was important to play a fighting knock. He's become very mature in the last year or so," Laxman told STAR Cricket after the end of the third day's play.

The two were involved in a crucial partnership after India had lost their middle order cheaply and managed to stage a recovery from where the visitors could set a stiff target for the hosts.

Laxman put on another exquisite performance shepherding the tailenders to take India's lead past the psychological 400-run mark. It wasn't a trademark fluent innings, but a workmanlike 79 that has put India in with a chance to win this Test and upset Australia's bid of a 17th straight Test win.

"It was a different innings because we lost early wickets. The pitch also had become a little slow compared to what it was on day two," he said.

The Hyderabadi said it was "encouraging" to see the way RP Singh applied himself and batted. The two put on 51 runs, 30 of those came off RP's bat.

"It was good to see the way RP hung on. He was not comfortable against Brett Lee so I took more strike. But he was comfortable against the other bowlers," he said.

On batting in Australia, Laxman said he enjoyed the wickets because they were "true and you get purchase for your shots".

INDIA AND AUSTRALIA SHARE THE HONOURS

Rahul Dravid just lost his concentration in a moment of indiscretion and as a result honours were shared on day one of the third Test at WACA, Perth. India dominated the first two sessions, but the Australians came back in the third picking up crucial wickets. India could have done better, but they still have the chance of posting more than just a decent total.Dravid scored a brilliant innings of 93 and Sachin got 71 runs and once again a rough decision.He was very unlucky to be given out and from then on the tide began to turn towards the aussies slowly but surely.This is one of the test matches where India will be looking to maintain the momentum to salvage a draw in the series but the Aussies for sure have grabbed the momentum.Earlier in the day Sehwag and Jaffer put up an attacking partnership of 56 runs.India are 297-6 at close of the day's play. MS Dhoni and Irfan Pathan are on eight each. The honours were shared with India dominating the first two sessions and Australia coming back in the third. It promises to be a great second day.

HOGG CHARGES DROPPED

India have dropped all charges against Brad Hogg.India on Monday dropped all charges against Australian spinner Brad Hogg, who was accused of abusing Anil Kumble and Mahendra Singh Dhoni during the second Test in Sydney.

"We decided to withdraw charges because we thought Hogg's comments were made in the heat of the moment," Indian skipper Kumble told reporters after a reconciliation meeting with his Australian counterpart Ricky Ponting.

The meeting was convened by ICC's chief match referee Ranjan Madugalle, who was appointed after the fallout in the second Test to ensure that the series proceeded smoothly.

"Ricky and I have had a discussion with Ranjan and after that it was important that the game of cricket moves on," said Kumble.

"Like I said cricket is larger than any individual. It is important that we forget what happened in Sydney it was just one of those bad moments, just an incidents probably in the heat of the moment. And we decided as a team to move on and remove the charges against Brad Hogg. It's important that we moved on," the skipper was quoted as saying by the Indian media.

Madugalle met the team managements before meeting the two captains. He was hopeful that the series would go on smoothly and in the right spirit.

"Over the last couple of days we've had very useul discussions with captains and managers of both teams resulting in meeting with Anil and Ricky today. Both of them realise the importance of moving the game forward as opposed to reflecting on the events of the last week. And as captains they have the responsibilities to uphold the game in it's right spirit and play the game with mutual respect for one another," Madugalle told reporters after the meeting.

With the charges against Hogg being dropped, speculation is rife that Australia may reciprocate by dropping the charges against Harbhajan Singh.

TOUR IN THREAT

The Harbhajan singh contrevosy is threatening to blow out this entire tour and is under threat now.Supporters of team India have come out and demonstrated on the streets to show out the injustice meted out to the Indian cricketers.This is the darkest hour in the history of indian cricket.ustralia captain Ricky Ponting has called for calm after India supporters demonstrated in the streets in response to the International Cricket Council's (ICC) decision to ban spin bowler Harbhajan Singh for three Tests.India called a halt to their tour of Australia and lodged a formal appeal with the ICC after Harbhajan, 27, was found guilty of calling Andrew Symonds a "monkey" during India's ill-tempered second Test defeat in Sydney.