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New Zealand has won a thriller after shocking Australia by a 7 run win. Captain Ross Taylor dedicated this win as a Christmas gift to long-suffering fans. A 21-year-old hero, Doug Bracewell did it for the kiwis in his fourth match picking six crucial wickets. The New Zealanders were thrashed by nine wickets in the series-opening match at Brisbane last week and were facing a 2-0 series defeat when Australia was cruising at 159-2 chasing 241 to win the second test.

Ponting (16), current skipper Michael Clarke (0) and veteran Mike Hussey (0) just before lunch swung the momentum determinedly in New Zealand’s favor after the series seemed to be traveling away from them. Brad Haddin survived the hat-trick ball but the three quick strikes gave New Zealand the upper hand with Australia having a longer-than-usual lower order. Bracewell was so excited he dropped a curse word into a live interview, but quickly regained his calm.

The Australians had resumed on the fourth day at 72 without loss and didn’t add a run before Phillip Hughes (20) was dismissed by Chris Martin for the fourth time this series. “Disappointed, no doubt,” Clarke said of the outcome. “We were pretty conflicting throughout this whole test. Want to pay a lot of credit to David Warner, scoring his first test match hundred was outstanding today. And Nathan Lyon, the way he hung in there, if a few of us batters showed the character and courage that he did today, we wouldn’t be standing here with the same result.”

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The player’s auction for the fifth edition of the Indian Premier League will be held in late January or early February and the teams will play their games on a home-and-away basis, with each of the nine franchises playing 16 games. The change means that the cash-rich Twenty20 competition reverts back to its original format, where all the teams played each other twice. In the upcoming season, each team is now going to play eight home games. The nine franchises will go into the auction having an extra salary cap of USD two million to spend on players.

The players from the Kochi Tuskers Kerala franchise, which was terminated by the BCCI in September this year, will be part of the auction. The decisions were taken at the IPL governing council's meet on Saturday. The IPL GC has also increased the number of players in each team from 30 to 33. The number of foreign players in each team will be 11 instead of 10, while two more Indian players can be added to each team's schedule. However, the number of foreign players that can be part of the final XI will remain at four.

There will also be an additional four play-off matches, to be held in Bangalore and Chennai that will take the total tally of matches in the tournament to 76. The IPL-5 season will begin in Chennai on April 4 and the final will be played at the same venue on May 27, 2012. "The trading window will open on December 15, 2011 and will run through to January 20, 2012. There will be a short second trading window after the players' auction," informed Shukla. The trading regulations will be as per previous seasons.

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Sehwag's Unforgettable Double Hundred in ODI's

Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag added 176 runs

Virender Sehwag scored a blistering 219 as India clinched the ODI series against West Indies with a convincing 153-run win in the fourth one-dayer to take an unassailable 3-1 lead. Denesh Ramdin threw away a possible maiden ODI century, being last man out as he wildly slog-swept Suresh Raina to be caught for 96, but no other batsmen put up much of a fight. Chasing a enormous target of 419, West Indies were bowled out for 265 in 49.2 overs.

Ramdin was the single fighter in the visitors’ innings. Lendl Simmons (36), Marlon Samuels (33) and allrounder Andre Russell (29) got starts but could not convert them into big knocks. Ravindra Jadeja (3 for 34), debutant spinner Rahul Sharma (3 for 43), part-timer Suresh Raina (2 for 17) and R Ashwin (1 for 59) accounted for nine wickets. Sharma, who has been touring with the side for almost two months, was chosen over the recalled Irfan Pathan and totally foxed West Indies after Sehwag's murderous assault had already demoralized them.

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Schalke coach Hub Stevens has praised his former club Hertha Berlin ahead of his return to the capital on Friday night. Stevens coached Hertha in 2002 and 2003 and he silent knows the club ladder well, although his precedence on Friday is taking the Royal Blues up to second in the Bundesliga table. "Hertha are enjoying a good season and the team is showing great morale," the Dutch coach told. "Their general manager Michael Preetz was a player under me back then and he and the rest of the management are doing a good job."

Markus Babbel is presently in charge of the capital club and has a good connection with Schalke's director of sport Horst Heldt, who is looking forward to meeting him again. "We go back a long way," Heldt said. "When he played for Bayern Munich, I was playing for 1860 Munich and we clashed in many a derby.”Later, I was manager in Stuttgart and he was our coach there. "We get on very well, but that friendship will be put to one side during the 90 minutes and I hope that we get the three points from Berlin."

Babbel's relationship with Hertha's current general manager Michael Preetz appears rather more strained though. Babbel has yet to commit to a new contract beyond the end of the season and Preetz is reported to have given him and taunt to make up his mind. "Before the second half of the season gets under way, the question will be answered one way or another," he told. No questions about Babbel's future were asked at the pre-match press conference.

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India has an incomplete business before they launch their excitedly awaited tour Down Under. The West Indies are proving too sticky for the Indians and they need to be on the guard, lest the visitors run away with the series. Stand-in captain Virender Sehwag knows well that his team needs to deliver the knockout punch in the fourth one-day international at the Holkar Stadium on Thursday, rather than leave the fate of the five-match series to the final game in Chennai.

India could have been tempted to bring in Ajinkya Rahane, but with still a lot at stake in the series, they may well stick with Gambhir. Besides the poor form of the top-order, another area of concern for India has been their bowling at the death. The bowlers have leaked runs, enabling the West Indies to come back strongly. First it was Ravi Rampaul's heroic blitz at Visakhapatnam and then Captain Darren Sammy's cameo in Ahmedabad that sent the rival bowling in disarray.

"We have let the West Indies off the hook during the slog overs. We need to tighten things and not give their batsmen too many opportunities with loose balls. Hopefully, the bowlers have learnt their lessons and will give an improved display," Viru said on the eve of the tie. India has had an inexperienced bowling attack in the first three games, but with the return of Irfan Pathan things should look up, particularly in the final overs. Though he lacks pace, the Baroda left-arm seamer is a crafty customer and has the skill to keep a check on the free-flowing Caribbean batsmen.

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Chelsea avoided the impossible on Tuesday as Andre Villas-Boas sacrificed his ideals for a place in the Champions League knockout phase. With the Blues in danger of crashing out of Europe's premier club contest before Christmas for the first time, manager Villas-Boas discarded the cavalier tactics that have been the seal of his supremacy in what was the club's final Group E game against Valencia.

The counter-attacking approach paid off spectacularly as Chelsea emerged from the brink of elimination to top the group thanks to a brace from the excellent Didier Drogba, a goal from Ramires and Bayer Leverkusen's failure to win at Genk. That meant the Blues avoided a last-16 clash with the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Inter Milan, although they would happily have taken that ahead of a game Villas-Boas had frequently billed as "life or death".

The 34-year-old last night refused to tolerate the prospect of failure, something he was nevertheless adamant would not cost him his job. Seemingly backed to the hilt by billionaire owner Roman Abramovich, Villas-Boas flexed his muscles this week by banishing Nicolas Anelka and Alex from his first-team squad and he was ruthless again on Tuesday by axing Frank Lampard from his starting XI. It was not the first time Lampard had been left out this season but the midfielder's omission was debatably the most significant of his entire Chelsea career.

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Pakistan spinners reveled in caring environment to crush Bangladesh by 58 runs in the third one-day international and wrap up a 3-0 series win. The tourists, bowled out for a modest 177 in the one-day international, hit back to dismiss Bangladesh for 119 on a wicket that turned and bounced at Chittagong. Shoaib Malik marked his 200th one-day look with three wickets for six runs in four overs and fellow off-spinner Mohammad Hafeez picked up three for 27 as the Tigers were bowled out in 38 overs.

It was Pakistan's 28th win in 29 one-dayers against Bangladesh, boosting the confidence of Misbah-ul-Haq's men ahead of the two-Test series starting on Friday. Bangladesh was sailing smoothly at 1-69 in the 20th over when five wickets stopped for 14 runs to allow Pakistan to bounce back in the match. "This was a really tough game," said a relieved Misbah. "But when there is self-belief you manage to get through.”Our bowlers did wonderfully well but we need to improve our batting.

Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim blamed his team's batting for the series whitewash. "Our bowlers did well all through the series, but our batsmen let us down," he said. "Hopefully we will overcome this loss and do better in the Test matches." Bangladesh lost opener Tamim Iqbal off the first ball of the innings, bowled by Hafeez, before Shahriar Nafees and Mahmudullah put on 69 for the second wicket.

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Abhimanyu Mithun, the Karnataka fast bowler, has been named as Praveen Kumar's replacement in India's Test squad for their tour of Australia. Irfan Pathan, the Baroda all rounder, has been picked for the last two one-dayers against West Indies, marking his return to the international group after more than two years.

After Praveen was ruled out of the Tests with a cracked rib, the selectors had to add another seamer to the 17-man squad for Australia and the place was probable to go to either one of Mithun, Vinay Kumar or Irfan Pathan. Mithun got that spot, but a place in the ODI squad was vacated because Umesh Yadav is departing for Australia early. Irfan's performances in the ongoing domestic season have been satisfied with that spot for the final two one-dayers.

Irfan has not played for India since 2009, but drew notice because of his performance in this season's Ranji Trophy, in which he is the leading wicket-taker in the Elite division, having taken 21 wickets in three games. Mithun took six wickets in three Tests on the tour of Sri Lanka in July 2010, his debut series.

India squad for last two ODIs: Virender Sehwag (capt), Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Parthiv Patel (wk), Rohit Sharma, Vinay Kumar, Irfan Pathan, Abhimanyu Mithun, Varun Aaron, R Ashwin, Manoj Tiwary, Ravindra Jadeja, Suresh Raina, Ajinkya Rahane, Rahul Sharma

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With a 2-0 lead in hand, India are definitely on course to record a second consecutive one-day series triumph at home as they take on West Indies in the third ODI of the five-match series at the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium in Motera on Monday. Although it has not been without some hiccups, the hosts look all set to hand out another defeat to the visiting side and take a winning 3-0 lead at the ground where they dethroned 2007 champions Australia on March 24 on their way to grabbing cricket's most popular crown - the World Cup.

The Virender Sehwag-led hosts have shown very good tenaciousness in the face of deep trouble to win the first two games of the series at Cuttack and Vishakhapatnam. They struggled to overcome a very modest target of 212 set by the Windies in the first ODI and then failed to deliver the knock-out blow when they had the visitors on the hop at 170 for 9 in the second match. On the first occasion, India rescued by the last wicket pair of Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav.

In the second game too India allowed Ravi Rampaul to smash a world record score for a no. 10 batsman, 86 not out in 66 balls with six sixes and as many fours, to help his team accumulate a tough 269 after they were 170 for 9 through a fighting, incomplete last wicket stand of 99 with Kemar Roach who made 24 not out. It needed a determined and tenacious stand of 163 runs between young guns Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma to guide India to a victory after they were in difficulties at 84 for 3.

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Bangladesh performance has been just as hopeless as Pakistan's has been dominant. The depth in the pace attack that gave Pakistan that extra benefit against Sri Lanka in the Test series has been complemented superbly by their spinners in the limited-overs formats. Shahid Afridi, Saeed Ajmal, Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Hafeez have outshone their Bangladesh counterparts, whose over-reliance on Shakib Al Hasan's all-round abilities can only take them so far.

The slow and low tracks in Mirpur may have muffled Pakistan's batting, but it's done worse for the hosts. Their captain Mushfiqur Rahim said: "I have not experienced what home advantage is in the last two series, to be honest with you. When you talk about home advantage, you expect to be playing on pitches you are known with, so you know what a good total would be, be it 240 or 150." But he was also prompt to point out that his batsmen "lacked application".

The pitches so far may not have been to their liking, but they've still played to Bangladesh's strength - spin. They've just been up against opponents who, apart from being significantly superior, have exploited those circumstances better. Not many expected Bangladesh to cause an upset against an opponent that is on a high, but not many would have thought they'd surrender this badly at home. With four games still left over on the tour, their batsmen, particularly, need to step up as no one's exposed the difference between the teams as glaringly as they have.

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The West Indians are slipping, then fighting back and even getting close to victory in the ongoing ODI series but are then running out of ideas. Chasing 269, the hosts completed with 270/5 with 11 balls to spare. Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma showed that the future of Indian cricket is safe in their willows. Coming together at 84/3, the duo made sure that there were no Cuttack-like hiccups or a close nail-biting finish by stringing jointly a 163-run partnership for the fourth wicket that snuffed out the Windies challenge.

Kohli enhanced his qualifications by notching up his second century at the venue. The Delhi batsman was hardly in trouble as he stroked 14 boundaries in his 123-ball 117 but will be unhappy with his dismissal. Rohit, who made a match-winning 72 in the previous game but rued the fact that he was not in the middle to finish the game, showed that he is a quick learner. Rohit unbeaten 90 (98b; 7x4, 2x6), was in superb touch from the word go. His timing was near perfect and shot selection was above reproach.

More highly, he was at the wicket when the winning runs were scored by Ravindra Jadeja. If the evening session was sans much drama, the first session didn't have a dull moment as fortunes swung to and fro. Sammy was expecting one of his lead batsmen to take up the challenge and give his side a defendable total but at 170/9, all his dreams once again lay crushed and the visitors looked headed for a huge defeat. No. 10 bat Ravi Rampaul threw caution to wind as he smashed career-best unbeaten 86 (66 balls, 6x4, 6x6) to take his side to 269/9.

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Rafael Nadal is first up against Juan Monaco as Spain face Argentina in the Davis Cup final. The Seville fight starts on Friday with the Nadal-Monaco clash then followed by David Ferrer taking on Juan Martin Del Potro. Saturday sees the doubles take centre stage as Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco line up for the hosts against David Nalbandian and Eduardo Schwank. Sunday's final two singles rubber sees the overturn of Friday's action with Nadal v Del Potro and Ferrer v Monaco.

Del Potro insists the mind scars suffered by Argentina in their 2008 Davis Cup final defeat to Spain have healed and hopes it will be fourth time lucky for the South Americans this weekend. Argentina exhausted arguably their greatest chance to land the sport's biggest team prize as Spain emerged victorious when the title match was played on an indoor court in Mar del Plata three years ago. Del Potro told reporters: "That is in the past, totally in the past. After that final, we grew up, I've better my game a lot and now we have another chance.

"We are very calm within the team and trying to do everything okay to be ready to fight. "To me, every final is different. Here it's different players, different surface, and different stadium and this time Spain is the favourite. "It's going to be different than Mar del Plata, if we are in good shape and remain focused." Argentina skipper Tito Vazquez raised a few eyebrows when he selected Monaco as one of his singles picks alongside Del Petro. Monaco will open the final against Nadal with the former world number one keen to dispel the theory he was lacking motivation.

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As the tour moves to the YS Rajasekhara Reddy Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam, the contest between the teams - which seemed rather expected to begin with - has acquired a more exciting taste following a couple of overexcited finishes in the lead-up to this game. A draw with the scores level in the third Test and a nail-biting finish in Cuttack, during which Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav provided an insight into the details of human behaviour under pressure, have spiced up a home season characterized by one-sided contests and poor crowds.

A high-scoring venue, teams have gone past 250 in each of the six ODI innings here - twice while chasing effectively. Indian top order will not want to fall victim to the "soft dismissals" that their captain Virender Sehwag criticized them for after the Cuttack game. Even more so for West Indies. They were troubled by India's seamers in Cuttack, but are now at a venue where the bowlers' skills and variations have been of partial value in past games.

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The Carling Cup final will feature an npower Championship team after the semi-final draw inclined Crystal Palace and Cardiff against each other. Palace beat an inexperienced Manchester United team 2-1 after extra-time at Old Trafford on Wednesday night to reach the last four while Cardiff had beaten Blackburn 24 hours earlier.

The Londoners will play the first leg at home before going to Wales for the return and the victors will face the winners of Manchester City against Liverpool. The ties will be played in the weeks commencing January 9 and January 23.Eagles boss Dougie Freedman told "It's going to be a very complicated tie for us."Cardiff are an exceptional team with good quality players and it's probably made it a harder draw for us."

Carling Cup semi-final draw

1. Manchester City v Liverpool

2. Crystal Palace v Cardiff City

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Australia is still favourites in this Test and should win the series. But New Zealand has a sniff. They haven't won a Test in Australia in 26 years, back when Richard Hadlee was at his peak and Allan Border's Australians were stressed at the start of their innovation phase. New Zealand are far from their peak right now they almost lost to Zimbabwe a month ago and be seated eighth on the Test rankings - but Australia are not far from their mid 1980s position. They are coming off a fine victory in Johannesburg less than a fortnight ago, but at least three of the men who played in that win are out of this Test, including the Man of the Match Pat Cummins.

Australia will play at least three debutants at the Gabba. David Warner will open in the nonappearance of Shane Watson; James Pattinson is expected to share the new ball with Peter Siddle; and either Mitchell Starc or Ben Cutting will come on at first change. The captain Michael Clarke even oblique that there was a chance all four fast men might play if the pitch looked as "green and juicy" on the morning of the match as it did two days before. There is also a new coach, Mickey Arthur, who has spent barely a week in the job and is still finding his feet.

Not that New Zealand is much more settled. This will be the second Test for the fast bowler Doug Bracewell and the batsman Dean Brownlie, while the wicketkeeper Reece Young is also in his first year of Test cricket. Like Australia, New Zealand have a new selection panel, installed by their director of cricket, John Buchanan, a man who coached four of the opposition players during his time in charge of Australia. But Ross Taylor's side is still learning how to win - they have won only four of their past 28 Tests.

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