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Match facts

Sunday, February 8
Start time 2.15pm (03.15 GMT)

The Big Picture

It would be easy, in the patronising Australian way, to say New Zealand are on the verge of their biggest triumph over their Trans-Tasman brothers for years. It would be wrong. The last time New Zealand were 2-0 up in the Chappell-Hadlee Series was in 2007 and they quickly wrapped up the series even though Matthew Hayden blasted 181.That was also when Australia lost five in a row and on that occasion they then went through the World Cup undefeated. Given the current situation it feels like a decade ago and this rut will be much harder to escape from. While a victory is important to keep Australia in the five-game contest, it is also necessary to avoid matching the country’s worst ODI losing streak of six, which came in 1996 when Mark Taylor was in charge.New Zealand, who won by six wickets in Melbourne on Friday, don’t care about the damage being done to Australia and will aim to regain the trophy after being swept aside in 2007-08. Even though the hosts are in a desperate situation, a series success would be an incredible achievement for Daniel Vettori’s rebuilding outfit.

ODI form guide

Australia – LLLLL
New Zealand – WWWNW

Team news

Ricky Ponting is back after his two-match rest was halved and the captain will provide some spark to the troubled order. Australia will wait until shortly before the game to finalise their side, but David Warner’s position is vulnerable following some subdued performances. It would not be a surprise if Brad Haddin moved to open along with Michael Clarke, who did the job well on Friday. Clarke is expected to be fit after an Iain O’Brien yorker struck his left foot in Melbourne, and his bowling will be needed as there is no specialist spinner in the 13-man squad. Shaun Tait has left the squad due to a reoccurrence of a hamstring injury and been replaced by Ryan Harris.Australia (possible) 1 Michael Clarke, 2 Brad Haddin (wk), 3 Ricky Ponting, 4 David Hussey, 5 Michael Hussey, 6 Cameron White, 7 Callum Ferguson, 8 James Hopes, 9 Mitchell Johnson, 10 Nathan Bracken, 11 Ben Hilfenhaus.New Zealand have no reason to change unless Brendon McCullum’s hip injury, which he sustained in the first week of the tour, continues to nag, but they will be reluctant to lose one of their most senior men. Gareth Hopkins, the standby wicketkeeper, played in Auckland’s Twenty20 win on Friday and will wait for a call. Jeetan Patel and Vettori have worked well during the opening two matches and will look forward to assistance from the Sydney surface.New Zealand (possible) 1 Brendon McCullum (wk), 2 Martin Guptill, 3 Peter Fulton, 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Grant Elliott, 6 Neil Broom, 7 Kyle Mills, 8 Daniel Vettori (capt), 9 Tim Southee, 10 Jeetan Patel, 11 Iain O’Brien.

Watch out for …

Mitchell Johnson has had an exhausting summer but must lift if Australia are to avoid the embarrassment of a series defeat with two matches still remaining. While nobody has worked harder for the team this season, Johnson has to step up when the side needs him most if he wants to be the long-term leader. In five matches since his return from a rest he has four wickets at 69.75 and an economy rate of 5.69.Australia have been happy to see Daniel Vettori off as he has given up 57 runs in 20 overs over the past week. However, this will be even harder in Sydney, where Vettori can look forward to more turn. In a sudden death match the home batsmen will not have the luxury of waiting for Vettori’s spell to finish, so he should have more opportunities for success.

Pitch & conditions

In the west of Sydney the temperatures are expected to reach 44C, but fortunately for the players and spectators the SCG is much closer to the water, and it should be ten degrees cooler. However, Stuart Karppinen, Australia’s strength and conditioning coach, will feed the players slurpies from his frozen drink machine before the game, cooling them from the inside out. It was something the country’s Olympic athletes did to counter the heat in Beijing.

Stats and trivia

• Australia will drop to fourth in the ODI rankings with two more losses in this series
• New Zealand have outscored Australia in the batting Powerplay, taking 71 runs over the first two games to Australia’s 56. Australia are slightly ahead during the bowling Powerplay with 28 to the tourists’ 22
• In 20 ODIs between the teams at the SCG, Australia have won 12 and New Zealand six

Quotes

“I still look at the Australian side with a lot of awe. I’ve played against them a lot and lost a lot of games against them. I know they’re a team that will bounce back.”
Daniel Vettori“I think we’ve got a great squad, we just need to produce it out on the park.”
Michael Clarke

Until the end of 2007, Gautam Gambhir was an angry young man wallowing in domestic cricket, not having played a Test for two years. The runs were coming but the recognition wasn’t. “I have 24 first-class hundreds,” he snapped when once asked about being branded as a one-day player, not yet ready for Test cricket. “Scoring hundreds in first-class cricket is not as easy as people make it out to be.”The same question was asked today, a little more than a year later, after Gambhir had made his highest one-day score to lead India to victory. His answer was exactly the same. Only the tone of delivery was different. He was self-assured, completely at ease with himself, and spoke quietly.”I am much more relaxed now and much more confident,” Gambhir said. “I don’t have to play for my pace in my side any more. One or two failures are not going to make a difference. That is the one big factor, the change in the mindset [after a successful 2008].”Gambhir is now completely aware of the demands of a match situation and, more importantly, what he is capable of. Today, he scored 88 runs through ones, twos and threes: 39 of them in the third-man region, 31 through cover – scoring areas. “In Sri Lanka, you really need to run a lot if you want to be successful,” he said. “I don’t think I can hit big like Viru [Sehwag], Yuvi [Yuvraj] and MS [Dhoni]. You just can’t copy them. I need to play according to my own game. That has what made me successful.”His critics said he fished too much outside off stump and would struggle in Test cricket. The comments were true, to an extent, but Gambhir has transformed himself mentally. Most batsmen try and shelve the shot that gets them into trouble. Gambhir, however, has polished it to perfection. He now scores a lot of runs towards third man.His success has not come quickly. Over the last two years, Gambhir has worked his craft with lots of care. “I worked with Gary in the nets and in the mental aspect,” he said. “Heis a left hander and has played over hundred games. And he was an opening batsman who knows what is required to score runs in Test cricket.”What were the discussions with Kirsten about? “On what should be my scoring areas and how to play in Test cricket.”The results started to come thick and fast. “I think the Sri Lankan Test series was the turning point and gave me lots of confidence. And the second thing was the century against Australia in Mohali. There was lots of pressure on me that I was not converting my starts. Those innings relaxed me.”The confidence Gambhir gained from Test success made him more effective in one-day internationals. Today he also showed why he is currently one of the best players of spin in the world, repeatedly moving down the track to Murali and driving him inside out. “That’s my strength. You need to use your scoring areas. It’s important where you want to play against quality bowler like him. Its working and I hope it continues.”The abundance of runs in the last year has not diminished his hunger. “It was important for me to carry the momentum into this year,” he said. “I am very happy with this century. It was one of my best, considering it came in Sri Lankan conditions. I can carry this momentum to New Zealand as well.” The angry young man has grown into a person at peace with himself.

Andrew Symonds will learn of his fate at a code of behaviour hearing in Melbourne on Thursday after being reported by Cricket Australia for his comments about the New Zealand player Brendon McCullum. Symonds could face a fine or suspension over a radio interview in which he called the New Zealand player Brendon McCullum “a lump of s…”.”Given the importance of the tribunal hearing, it would be inappropriate to comment on the issue now a report has been made,” Michael Brown, the acting chief executive of Cricket Australia, said on Tuesday. “Once the outcome of this hearing is finalised, Cricket Australia will be in a better position to assess issues relating to Andrew Symonds.”The controversial radio interview is the latest in a long line of off-field dramas involving Symonds. In the past six months alone he was axed from the national squad in Darwin for going on a fishing trip, undertook a rehabilitation programme, and then became involved in a bar-room incident after his Test comeback in Brisbane.Symonds is currently preparing for his Sheffield Shield comeback on Friday after having knee surgery earlier this month. His Queensland coach Trevor Barsby said the state squad would offer him whatever support was required but that ultimately it was up to Symonds to understand the consequences of his behaviour.”He is a big boy so he must realise that he has to take control of his own destiny,” Barsby said in the . “He has the full support of current and former players – and a direct line to some counsellors – but at the end of the day the buck stops with him.”We can help him as much as possible but we can’t babysit him. Roy needs to choose to do something about things and take ownership. He is a grown man and he’s got to be aware of the consequences of his actions.”Symonds apologised for the McCullum comments and said he was trying to go along with the light-hearted nature of Roy and HG’s radio show. He won the support of his former Queensland captain Jimmy Maher, who said the media reaction to the radio interview was over the top.”I just think we are getting a bit precious aren’t we? You’d swear he’d murdered someone the way some people are carrying on,” Maher told the . “It’s not that big a deal. He came out and apologised. anyway, it was a light-hearted radio gig. Roy and HG say those sort of things all the time, that’s the flavour of the show, it’s a bit of carry-on and he hasn’t meant anything by it.”

Australia’s 103-run victory against South Africa in the third and final Test of the series in Sydney has ensured they stay top of the ICC Test rankings. However, the gap at the top has been reduced to just five rating points as South Africa clinched the series 2-1.It was the first time that South Africa, who went into the series placed second, won a Test series in Australia, though only a 3-0 whitewash would have ensured a change at the top.However, they will be keen to grab the opportunity in the return series, with the first Test getting underway on February 26 in Johannesburg. Any sort of victory in the three-match series will result in South Africa going top.With India, currently at No. 3, in the ascendancy as well after back-to-back series wins against Australia and England at home, there are now just eight points separating the top three teams.Sri Lanka also strengthened its hold on the fourth place with a 2-0 series win in Bangladesh. The victory gave Sri Lanka another rating point and put them within 10 of India and six ahead of England, who are at fifth.Pakistan are three points behind in sixth place, while the West Indies stayed just ahead of New Zealand by a fraction of a point following the drawn two-Test series between the two teams.

New Zealand’s selectors have made sweeping changes to the squad that lost to Australia 2-0. Apart from fast bowler Chris Martin and batsman Aaron Redmond, those who have been dropped for the two-match series against West Indies include Tim Southee, Gareth Hopkins, Peter Fulton and Grant Elliott.The allrounder James Franklin has been recalled after recovering from a career-threatening knee injury, while Tim McIntosh, the left-handed Auckland opener, has earned a maiden call-up. The 12-man squad also welcomes back Jacob Oram, who missed the Australia tour due to a back injury, and fast bowler Mark Gillespie.Glenn Turner, head of New Zealand’s selection panel, said the selectors felt Martin – who managed six wickets in Australia – would benefit from more cricket at the domestic level while rebuilding his fitness after injury. “We didn’t feel we could play both Mark Gillespie and Chris Martin, particularly in Dunedin because in recent times it’s gone from being a seamers’ paradise into one that’s very low and slow,” he said. “Gillespie has shown good recent form, bowling a lot of overs and taking eight wickets in his last match – he becomes our strike bowler in this series.”He also said that Franklin was included for his impressive form on his return to domestic cricket. Franklin made his first-class comeback last month for Wellington, scoring 69 and taking 4 for 56 in his team’s innings victory over Canterbury. Already this season he has made 448 runs in three matches with two centuries and a fifty, including a career-best 219 against Auckland at Eden Park. Franklin last played a Test in December 2006 and has not appeared in ODIs since the 2007 World Cup.”James Franklin’s return to form as an allrounder has also been good news. With Oram able to bat and returning after injury we’re in the fortunate position of having both our leading allrounders available.” Oram declared himself fit this week and his next assignment is a four-day match against Otago in Napier starting on Saturday.McIntosh, 29, scored 78 on day one of Auckland’s match against the West Indians to take his tally to 418 runs at 69.00 this summer. He replaces Redmond, who scored 115 runs at 28.75 in Australia, at the top of the order.Jeetan Patel has been retained as the second specialist spin bowler. “His inclusion gives us the option of a stronger spin attack, depending on pitch conditions at University Oval,” said Turner.The first Test in Dunedin begins on December 11, with the second in Napier starting on December 19.New Zealand squad: Daniel Vettori (capt), Jamie How, Tim McIntosh, Daniel Flynn, Ross Taylor, Jesse Ryder, Jacob Oram, Brendon McCullum (wk), James Franklin, Mark Gillespie, Iain O’Brien, Jeetan Patel.

Surrey have continued their post-season shake-up by releasing quick bowler Neil Saker and batsman Richard Clinton.Saker, 24, joined in 2003 but managed just 18 first-class matches during an injury-hit stay. His best performance was 5 for 76 against Lancashire in 2007.Clinton, the son of former Surrey batsman Graeme, made his debut 2004 after a late call-up to open the batting and made 73. However, in his 23-match career he only managed one century, against Kent in 2005.”I’d like to thank both players on the club’s behalf for their commitment and effort put in during their time here,” said second team coach Nadeem Shahid. “Neil and Richard are talented and hard working cricketers and we wish them all the best for the future.”Managing director Gus Mackay added: “We were faced with an extremely difficult choice to make but you have to do what you think is best for the squad going forward. The decision was made in the best interests of the club and the players involved. They can now pursue better opportunities elsewhere and we can now focus on getting our squad right ahead of an extremely important year in 2009.”

Ollie Rayner, the Sussex offspinner, has signed a new two-year contract with the club.Rayner, 22, enjoyed a reasonably successful season with Sussex whose star legspinner, Mushtaq Ahmed, has now retired. Rayner was Sussex’s third-leading wicket taker in the Championship with 31 at 33.61.”We’re delighted that Ollie has agreed to see his immediate future with us after such a promising season,” Mark Robinson, Sussex’s cricket manager, said. “Ollie’s one of our own and now has the opportunity to further cement his place in the team.”

The ICC will hold the postponed Champions Trophy between September 24 and October 5, 2009, it was decided during the second day of its board meeting in Dubai. The announcement ends months of uncertainty about the event which was originally scheduled for September this year in Pakistan but was postponed after several participating countries refused to travel over security fears in the country.The new dates were formalised after detailed discussions between Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, and officials of various national boards, many of whom will have now have to adjust their international programme to accommodate the event. The ICC, too, has had to make an adjustment of its own to accommodate the event, shortening its duration from the original 17 days to 12, including a reserve day for the final.The ICC also said the event will be held in one city, possibly to ensure foolproof security arrangements, though Pakistan’s fate as host will be decided only after a review following India’s tour of the country in early 2009. Lahore and Karachi were the original venues.David Morgan, the ICC president, welcomed the decision to find a place for the tournament despite an increasingly packed Future Tours Program (FTP) and Lorgat thanked the participating countries for their cooperation. “I’m hugely encouraged by the spirit of togetherness and teamwork shown by our members in ensuring we have found a place for the Champions Trophy in next year’s calendar,” Lorgat said.The ICC board’s decision means the BCCI, which had originally refused to adjust its international programme to allow the postponed event, will have to reschedule the second edition of the Twenty20 Champions League, which had originally been slotted for September 25-October 10. India has also tentatively scheduled a seven-ODI home series against Australia to start from October 13 next year.N Srinivasan, the BCCI secretary, said that “there will be no clash of dates”. “The new programme takes into account a provision for the Champions League also,” Srinivasan told Cricinfo.According to Lorgat, for whom the result of today’s decision is an achievement of sorts considering the initial opposition to the new window, the tournament needed to be held as it is “vitally important for the world game”.The Champions Trophy is expected to rake in around USD 40 million, most of which will be redeployed for the development of the game. “The tournament, with its new format of the top eight teams playing in a short, sharp event, is vitally important for the world game because it allows those members, as well as the developing cricket world, to grow the sport,” Lorgat said.

Chris Martin has been ruled out of New Zealand’s upcoming Test series against Bangladesh and will be replaced by Mark Gillespie. Martin was already a late withdrawal from the ODI squad due to niggling hamstring and lower back injuries.He picked up the problems during his spell in county cricket with Warwickshire this year. Dion Nash, one of New Zealand’s selectors, said although Martin was pain free and making good progress, he had lost some condition in recent weeks.”With such a big season ahead it would have been foolish to rush Chris back too early,” Nash said. “He is better at home working on his fitness and strength and preparing himself for the two-Test series against Australia next month.”Martin was originally named in the group to take on Bangladesh in three one-dayers until his place was taken by Michael Mason. Gillespie is already with the squad for the limited-overs series, which begins in Dhaka on Thursday.

Scorecard

Pakistan Cricket Academy swept the one-day series against Zimbabwe Board XI 3-0 after Fawad Alam’s unbeaten century led the visitors to a 63-run victory in the final match at the Zimbabwe Cricket Academy in Harare.Pakistan once again chose to bat after winning the toss – they had done so in the second game as well – and scored 260 for 7 in 50 overs. Alam anchored the innings and scored 100 not out off 132 balls with seven fours. Asad Shafiq contributed 49 before he was run out, while Umer Amin scored 38.Amin was Prince Masvaure’s first wicket and he finished with 2 for 35 off seven overs, while Shingirai Masakadza, returning from injury, picked up 3 for 42.The target of 261 proved too tall for Zimbabwe’s batsmen and they fell short for the third time in the series. They were dismissed for 134 and 189 while chasing targets of 238 and 214 in the first two games and their final effort ended on 197. Their top-scorer was Friday Kasteni who was bowled for 45 by Mohammad Talha. Chakabva’s 37 was the second-highest score followed by Timycen Maruma’s 31. Zimbabwe’s innings ended in the 47th over.Raheel Majeed took 3 for 43 for Pakistan, while Mohammad Talha and Imad Wasim took two wickets each.