South Africa's icy plans to beat UAE heat

Perhaps the only thing you can't buy in a Dubai shopping mall is reality. Stroll through any one of the monstrous mazes and you can do anything from test driving a sports car to skiing down a slope of man-made ice. For the latter, you can even buy a fur coat if needs be.

"Can't see these being big sellers in UAE," Graeme Smith posted on Twitter, after spotting some of the fluffy, warm items through a shop window. Precisely.

But there is one kind of jacket that could become a must-have in these parts: the ice-vest. You're unlikely to see it on any of the catwalks but if you're tuned in to the cricket, look for it beyond the boundary. That's where some of the South Africa players will be taking a minute or two to put it on and cool down while on the field against Pakistan.

The garment, as explained by spin-bowling consultant Claude Henderson, is simply "a jacket with ice inside it" but it is a bit more complicated than that. South Africa have been trialling a range of different articles, including neck pieces, discs and bandanas, some of which contain a freezable gel that assists in bringing body temperature down.

It's not an entirely revolutionary concept - few things in fashion are - and fitness trainer Greg King said he has seen them worn by teams such as Australia and India in the past, but it is something South Africa are trying to perfect usage of as they head into what's expected to be a hot series.

The average high for October in Abu Dhabi sits at 35 degrees Celsius. It has been mostly hotter for the time South Africa have been here. Sharjah went up to 40 degrees and although cricketers play in these conditions on occasion, they need to be watched carefully when they do.

"When the environmental temperature is hotter than the body or close to body heat, it becomes very difficult for your body to lose heat," King said. "The temperature of skin is around 32 degrees so when it is close to that outside, the body will be generating heat and its mechanism for dispensing with it is made less efficient.

"If you get too hot, your body will tell you to slow down. You won't be able to put in as much effort. And then you will not get guys bowling at 100%, they'll be at 80%."

South Africa want their players, particularly their fast bowlers, to be able to deliver at their maximum in this series. If they need to be kept on ice to do that, that's what King is going to do. "When they are on the field, they can't wear an ice-vest because it's cumbersome and there are regulations about what you can and can't put on so we've to experiment with when they come off the field and during drinks breaks," King said. "It's just giving the guys a minute or two of comfort."

Dale Steyn was spotted donning the jacket on a few occasions during the practice match and a handful of other players had the neck-wear on. Robin Peterson though, had neither on and had not even heard of them until asked. "I don't think I'll need it, I'm ok in the heat," Peterson said.

Like Peterson, most members of the South Africa squad have started to acclimatise to the heat. Smith said they are "feeling more settled" now than they were on arrival, when it was like "walking into a steam bath." Having played in places King described as similarly hot and humid - Chennai, Kochi and even Durban - turning out in the UAE is not a task that should burn them out.

Still, they want to find different ways of managing the players' response to extreme conditions and the latest wardrobe is one of them. Those who don't have an interest in haute couture will be pleased to know new clothes are not the only way the emperors - according to the Test rankings at least - plan to overcome heat.

King also plans to resort to good, old-fashioned umbrellas on the side of the field where the players can get a spot of shade when needed. The officials have yet to rubber-stamp his request to position them at various places along the boundary but King said he will "try and push for four umbrellas around the ground." He has revealed they are "more effective than any of the garments we have." Now that's a reality check indeed.

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Champions Trophy failure casts shadow for Cook

By any standards, Alastair Cook has enjoyed a fine first year as captain of the England Test and ODI teams. In a role which is largely defined by Ashes success, England's 3-0 victory over Australia stands out, though the Test series victory in India might well, in the long-term, be rated as the greater achievement. Either way, to have lost only one Test in 14 and won seven more is a fine record.

Yet it is a reflection of Cook's high standards and expectations that, when asked to reflect on his first year in charge, it is a failure that stands out.

Failing to win the Champions Trophy final still hurts. England, with the game in their grasp, surrendered their chance to win a first global ODI trophy. With 16 balls to go and six wickets in hand, they required only 20 to win. In the end, though, India won by five runs.

It is the first thing Cook mentions when reflecting on his year in charge.

"We should have won that game," Cook sighs. "We should have won that game of cricket chasing 130.

"As a team we are always going to be disappointed by the Champions Trophy final. It took quite a long time to get over it. It was the same for me personally. The game was in our grasp. That was a tough day and I think it took us a long time to get over.

"They were unique circumstances. To have a Champions Trophy and go straight into an Ashes within 10 days was tough. Losing knocked us down a bit more than we thought. We already started the Ashes a little bit jaded."

Cook's comments underline the high-priority England invested in the tournament. While the focus of the media and most spectators was upon the Ashes, England realised that the event presented an opportunity to win a global ODI trophy and reiterated the impression that, after years when Test cricket was the priority for England, showpiece, global limited-overs events are now held in equally high esteem. The 2015 World Cup is the next such target.

"It was certainly a good tournament," Cook said. "To have it in two weeks, with every game having meaning was sensational. Past World Cups haven't felt like that. But we had an opportunity to win the Champions Trophy and the Ashes in a short space of time and we didn't quite take it."

Cook also admitted that his relative struggles with the bat during the Ashes series - he averaged 27.70 - did "not sit easy with him."

"It's frustrating because I feel my game is in good order," he said. "You don't look at any career and see a constant upward curve. That's what being a batsmen is. But it doesn't sit easy with me to say that and accept it to be fine.

"As a captain you want to lead from the front and score runs; that is your primary job. Particularly when you play your first Ashes series as captain.

"But until you've gone through it you don't really know what to expect. It is more intense, it is more heightened.

"I don't think that has affected my batting. It's more of a bone of frustration. I still felt I contributed with three fifties and if you change fifties into hundreds it changes the complexion. I'm looking forward to putting that right."

When pushed, however, Cook did admit that England's success in India was a considerable source of pride. Cook had assumed control of a divided team reeling from the Kevin Pietersen episode and facing one of its long-established fears: spinning wickets in Asia. Yet, despite considerable odds, Cook somehow untied the dressing room and led his side from one-down after the first Test to an admirable victory.

"When you achieve something as special as that, it does reignite the side and squad," Cook said. "That will be the series that, when I stop playing cricket and look back, I will think was special.

"The next time we go to India, too, we will realise what we achieved. If you look where we were at the end of the second or third day of that first Test, I think it was an even greater achievement.

"I can't fault the lads - there is always going to be a bit or turmoil when a new captain comes in that - that is natural. I'd been captain of the ODI side, but when you lose someone like Andrew Strauss with the credit he's got and the respect he's got, there's always going to be time to get used to it. But the lads responded to me and the way we've gone on, we can't fault that. We need to draw on that in the next three months."

Alastair Cook was supporting the Chance to Shine Annual Awards. Chance to Shine is keeping cricket alive in schools and just £15 pays for a year's coaching for one child. Donate at chancetoshine.org

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Mominul starts delivering on promise

Hailing from Bangladesh' premier sports school, the BKSP, Mominul's maiden century proves why he was earmarked for the future

On a few occasions every decade, since the inception of BKSP - the country's largest sports institute - in 1986, Bangladesh cricket gets in the grip of "who's coming out of BKSP" fever. It started with Al Shahriar and Naimur Rahman in the mid-1990s and continued with Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan in the early 2000s. Towards the middle and end of the last decade, Nasir Hossain, Anamul Haque and Mominul Haque were the most talked about.

In between, there have been several misses too. Players, such as Al Shahriar, pace bowler Sajal Chowdhury, and more recently Sohrawardi Shuvo, were highly-rated, but they either had technical flaws or they bowed out at a young age due to the weight of expectations.

With his maiden century against New Zealand, Mominul has begun to fulfill his early billing. It was a two-paced innings; he started off rapidly on the second day, continuing in the same vein as he went past the century-mark, but as the bowling side caught up with him, he allowed Shakib and Mushfiqur - fellow BKSP alumni - to take over the scoring.

"They probably didn't know much about my batting because on the second day, I got a lot of bad balls," Mominul said. "There was a bit of pressure on me today, particularly to score the hundred. I got a little careful as a result, but then I crossed that landmark, and the one after that.

"It was a little tough to bat today, because they bowled in the right areas. I am a disappointed at not getting a double-hundred. I don't know if I would get a second chance."

Mominul's innings would please his BKSP coaches and the age-group scouts, who have spent their lifetimes finding such talents, parading them in tournaments and then spreading the word until one of the Dhaka clubs offer them a contract.

Mohammad Salahuddin, Bangladesh's former fielding coach, used to be the coach at BKSP when Mominul was admitted to the school in the seventh grade in 2004. The mentor kept a keen eye on his progress, and made sure that his guidance wasn't lost when he left BKSP the following year.

Though now he is the coach of a Malaysian university, Salahuddin felt elated after a year of near misses. The two had a talk on the second night when Salahuddin asked Mominul to open up his stance slightly so that he can have full-view of the left-arm seamers or anyone coming around the wicket.

	Normally he tapers off or tries to bat too quickly. It was quite good today, I thought he understood where he needed to stop or go after the bowling Former BKSP coach Mohammad Salahuddin

"I was a little concerned that he wasn't getting a big score in international cricket," Salahuddin said. "Today I saw parts of his innings. I was really pleased with how he kept the rhythm of his innings until his hundred. Normally he tapers off or tries to bat too quickly. It was quite good today, I thought he understood where he needed to stop or go after the bowling.

"He is a good guy, very disciplined and a hardworking student. You didn't have to force him to do things. The old guys at the BKSP indoor would tell you that he was there at the nets almost every day. He prepares well, like he did in this off-season when he worked on his leg-side shots."

When Mominul first came into attention with a 150 against West Indies A, then BCB president AHM Mustafa Kamal, a rather excitable administrator, wanted him in the Test squad right away during the home series against Pakistan, two years ago.

It didn't materialise, but Mominul was in selectors' eyes from then on. In his formative years after he had moved from hometown Cox's Bazar to BKSP, he quickly became one of those cricketers that the Dhaka leagues awaited after getting very positive reports from coaches and scouts of the age-groups.

Mominul followed the same route that got him to every representative side. But he hardly played more than five matches in the first-class arena. He was always going to make it to the senior side at the back of a bulk of runs, and that came last season. In eight matches, Mominul scored 443 with a top score of 120 out of the two centuries.

It was enough for the selectors to keep him in the fringes. The opening came when Shakib Al Hasan was injured ahead of the West Indies ODIs at home. A steady 25 in his fifth ODI, also the series decider, gave a glimpse of how he could hold his own.

Mominul made further strides with two fifties during the Tests in Sri Lanka, but in Zimbabwe, after not being able to convert his starts in the second Test, and looking uncomfortable at No. 3 in the ODIs, he was left out from the final ODI and told to work on his leg-side shots.

However, the off-season work, the pre-season tour of England with Bangladesh A and some runs in the Dhaka Premier League have helped him. New Zealand were taken aback by his strokes early on, but even after they restricted him on the third morning and afternoon, Mominul didn't look out of place.

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Smith confident despite brief preparation

Graeme Smith does not feel underprepared ahead of next week's Test series against Pakistan despite being out of action since May and batting for only 30 minutes in the warm-up fixture against Pakistan A.

Smith was out lbw for 2 in the first innings of the match and did not make an appearance in the second because of workload management. South Africa chose to juggle their line-up to expose the middle and lower order to the new ball and spinners.

It leaves Smith with only two short stints of match time - he played a warm-up game for Cobras last week, in which he also scored 2, and the Sharjah warm-up - ahead of South Africa's first Test series in seven months.

Smith is confident the lack of game time will not affect the way he plays when it counts the most. "I've been following the programmes in place to make sure I can get out on the field on Monday," he said. "That is the ultimate goal, to lead in a Test match."

Those plans include careful management of his return from injury. Smith was on a personalised training schedule over the winter and made incremental progress as the series approached. On departure from South Africa he said he had "upped his cricket skills" in the last two weeks so it was about "getting mentally ready" in the UAE but he wanted to "maximise the preparation available to me".

One interpretation of that would have been to get another innings under his belt but Smith explained overload was not the answer: "Not batting today was just a management process. I've had major surgery five months ago so it's about following protocols and listening to the medical team."

He admitted he would have preferred to bat longer in his first innings but did not read too much into being the only member of the top five who did not score a half-century. "I would have liked more time out there," he said. "But it's not the first time it has happened to me and it won't be the last. That's cricket. You take the good with the bad."

Later that afternoon, Smith held a long net session with coach Russell Domingo and he is certain to have a couple more before the Test. He has been working on "quite specific" aspects of his game which include, "maybe 10 to 15 minutes with the new ball and then some spin bowling" but said it's "no different" to the way he has trained in the past. "Having toured the subcontinent and the UAE before, I understand what needs to be done," he said.

This is not the first lengthy injury layoff Smith has had. His ankle has caused him problems in the past, as recently as before last year's England series when he did not play for a while before the Tests but returned with a century in his 100th game. "Last year, I didn't spend a huge amount of time in the middle before the series but I felt good about my game," he said. "You don't get it perfect like that all the time but the motivation is there."

Smith is not the only member of the side making a comeback. Jacques Kallis has not played any cricket since the IPL, after opting out of the Champions Trophy squad, and JP Duminy's ruptured Achilles has kept him out of whites since the England tour of July-August 2012. Claude Henderson, South Africa's spin consultant, said Kallis had two net sessions before declaring himself ready for the Tests and Smith knows his premier allrounder is good to go. "Jakes has the experience - he knows what it takes to come back from a layoff."

Duminy's form - in the one-day format, the unofficial Test against India A and this match - suggests he is also ready to get on with the job. "JP has played a fair amount of cricket since his injury," Smith said. "Watching him bat in the nets, it looked like he had had a whole season out there. I am very happy with where everybody is."

Although a quick glance through the scorecard of the warm-up match will illustrate that it was nothing more than a glorified middle practice, Smith said the team were able get used to the conditions, particularly the temperature. "Apart from the match, we had two pretty tough training sessions and a lot of other work in the heat," he said. "There has been a fair amount of acclimatising. We are all feeling a little more settled under the heat than we were earlier."

The squad will travel to Abu Dhabi tomorrow and Smith hopes they will settle in quickly and get ready to do what he knows they can. "This team has the ability mentally to step it up going into a big series." History has shown Smith does too, whether he has had game time or not.

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A tale of two innings

The numbers of BJ Watling and Mominul Haque's innings offer an insight into the mindset as both batsmen reacted quite differently when faced with a similar kind of pressure

The striking contrast between BJ Watling's second Test hundred and Mominul Haque's highest Test score was evident in their boundary count. Watling struck six fours and two sixes in his four-hour stay at the wicket. Mominul already has 13 fours in a 71-ball 77, which is rather uncharacteristic of his natural game.

The numbers said much about their mindset at the crease, which played a key role, as they gathered knowledge of the conditions and reacted to the situation of the match.

Mominul arrived with the score at 8 for 2 in the fourth over, with Bangladesh still 461 runs behind. He also had to contend with the possibility that a failure here might mean his exit from the XI with Naeem Islam waiting in the wings.

Watling only had tailenders for company since the seventh ball of the day's play. He had every option to attack, since he had little to lose from that point, and since he would have been forgiven for trying to up the tempo and grab what he could as their innings was starting to slide downwards.

Instead Watling chose to grind like the top-order batsmen on the first day, making sure the bowlers came to him rather than him chasing after them. A sound strategy on a slow wicket, considering the majority of the bowler's successes would revolve around the batsman making a mistake.

It came when Watling was on four as he flung at a Rubel Hossain delivery way outside off-stump and Nasir Hossain taking the catch at gully. But it was a no-ball, as revealed by the later TV replay, and Watling tightened his game.

"I am obviously feeling rather lucky today," Watling said. "It happened to one of them [the Bangladesh batsmen] too. It's great to get that opportunity to keep going and make it count and try to make a decent contribution.

"I just tried to switch back on and start again really, learnt from the mistake that I made. It was a pretty rash shot so it was good to get a chance to redeem myself and try to score as many runs as possible."

The 127-run stand for the tenth wicket with Trent Boult was more down to Watling's doing as he farmed the strike cleverly in the first hour and let Boult free in the second half of their stay at the crease.

For Watling, who was playing only his third Test innings in the sub-continent, it was only a matter of getting used to the pitch. The one in Chittagong is a typical Bangladeshi wicket which offers very little bounce to play any horizontal bat shots or any pace to work the ball.

"I wanted to be patient and wait for them to bowl some bad balls," he said. "I think if you bat a lot of time on that wicket you can get used to it and you can score runs when the bowler starts to tire."

For Mominul, this was the sort of innings that would answer some of the questions on his ability to play Test cricket. He has scored two fifties in four matches but he found things difficult in the only Test he played in Zimbabwe, and in the ODI series where they experimented with him at No. 3 for a while. He had also averaged just over 28 on Bangaldesh A's tour of England, which was disastrous for most of the tourists.

However, Mominul benefited from some ill-directed bowling. He didn't have to go out of his way to strike three consecutive fours off Bruce Martin's first over. It was the same story against Doug Bracewell in the next, and as he moved to a half-century off just 36 balls.

Mominul's innings transferred the pressure back on New Zealand as he and Marshall Ayub added 95 runs for the unbroken third wicket to take Bangladesh through till end of day's play.

The overnight batsmen's first task is to see out the first hour, whatever the quality of bowling is, especially considering Bangladesh have more often than not lost wickets early after a promising overnight score. Mominul and Ayub should take a leaf out of Watling's book, for he displayed patience when he could have easily taken the safer route of batting for himself.

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Pujara, Gambhir put India A ahead

India A 334 for 3 (Pujara 139*, Gambhir 123) lead West Indies A 268 by 66 runs
Scorecard

It was a distracting sort of day in Hubli. Even before Sachin Tendulkar announced his retirement, taking the fizz out of the game, there was enough to sidetrack you. West Indies A used four wicketkeepers - one of them not even part of their XI, but allowed on humanitarian grounds, - on two separate occasions bees invaded the field forcing the players to lie prone for minutes, a batsman was hit-wicket and bowled to the same delivery, and the goods train kept honking its horns on the nearby railway track. Gautam Gambhir, though, managed to put all that aside, concentrated hard, got lucky when the concentration broke on the rare occasion, and scored his third first-class century of the year. He has scored only three since January 2010, which is why he finds himself out of the Test side.

With Gambhir, for a majority of the innings, was a man with whom he has been discussing batting in the lead-up to the match, Cheteshwar Pujara. The two put on 207 for the second wicket to put India A in a position from where they can push for a win. At the end of the second day, they led West Indies A by 66 runs with seven wickets in hand. While Pujara remained unbeaten on 139, Virender Sehwag fell for a middling 38 after he had begun well and had the dispirited West Indies A attack at his mercy.

If that soft dismissal wasn't enough for Sehwag, he walked back to the news that his good friend, ODI opening partner, mentor and team-mate of 93 Tests, had retired. His reaction was a stunned "Oh, he is retiring?"

Gambhir had already been dismissed by then. His century was not quite a scratchy effort, but it had periods where the conviction was missing. It isn't entirely unexpected of a batsman fighting to come back to form. There were the reassuring off-drives and late cuts, and the milking of the spinners to go with it. Along the way he was helped by the generous fielding: 10 overthrows came his way to go with a dropped chance.

Gambhir's day began with two plays-and-misses in the first over, but he saw off the new ball well. Even during the spells when boundaries didn't come regularly, he didn't go out of his way looking for them. He left well on length, and reacted well to the fuller change-up deliveries, either driving them down the ground or clipping them to leg.

The first blip in concentration came in the last over before lunch when Gambhir went driving at a wide delivery, but was dropped at second slip by Ashley Nurse. He was 56 then. Soon after lunch other elements would test his concentration. In the first over after the interval, wicketkeeper Jahmar Hamilton hurt his finger, handing the gloves over to Jonathan Carter, who looked pretty uncomfortable but there was no better option around. Soon Carter hurt his finger too, and Nurse had to don the gloves. While that was happening, bees attacked the field. The crowd went wild. Minutes were wasted, and the batsmen wondered what was going on.

By the time Nurse took a knock himself, the match referee had allowed West Indies A to use the specialist wicketkeeper Chadwick Walton, who had sat out this game. Even as the surreal session went ahead, the odd delivery would jump out of nowhere. Gambhir was 85 when he tried his dab to third man, but was beaten by a stinger from Delorn Johnson.

When Gambhir was 93, the tea break arrived. After the break he went from 93 to 99 without fuss, but grew awfully nervous on one run short of the hundred. The first two balls on 99 went well, but the next six were excruciating even as the 15,000 spectators cheered him on. He tried to rock back and cut, he tried to step out and loft, on the odd occasion he began to run after hitting straight, and also survived a loud lbw shout when he played Nurse across the line.

Finally Nurse provided him a long hop, which Gambhir pulled in the air - not high enough to go over the head of a fielder - but in the gap between the two midwickets placed for him. Gambhir couldn't carry on for much longer. When he went back to cut Narsingh Deonarine, he went too deep into the crease, the bat came down on the middle stump, after which the ball hit the stumps.

Gambhir was given out bowled. Just like "bowled" takes precedence even though a decision against a batsman for any other method of dismissal is justified, the Tendulkar news was bound to take precedence.

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Perera hits belligerent 150 as team folds

Development XI 299 for 9 (Perera 150, Jayasuriya 56, Senanayake 3-82) trail Board XI 575 all out (Silva 125, Sangakkara 107, Eranga 4-95) by 276 runs
Scorecard

On the day Tillakaratne Dilshan officially announced his retirement, Kusal Perera made a play at his vacated opening position, slamming 150 from 142 balls on a rain-effected day three of the four-dayer at the P Sara Oval. Development XI could not offer much else with the bat though, as they finished the day on 299 for 9, in response to Board XI's 575.

Offspinner Sachithra Senanayake took three wickets in the day, while medium-pace bowlers Nuwan Kulasekara and Suranga Lakmal took two apiece. Board XI will struggle to push for an outright win however, after 49 overs were lost to rain early in the day.

Perera began the day on 70, and though he lost overnight partner Shehan Jayasuriya in the first over, he continued to score briskly, as he had the previous evening. Development XI lost four batsmen to pace bowling in the first 12 overs of the day, during which Perera scored all but six of the runs to come off the bat. He hit12 fours and six sixes in his innings, and was eventually trapped in front by Senanayake.

Niroshan Dickwella was the only other batsman to make more than 15 on day three, hitting 42 before giving Ajantha Mendis his only wicket. Malinda Pushpakumara and Vishwa Fernando finished unbeaten at stumps.

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Five-bowler strategy a positive sign for Bangladesh

Playing five bowlers paid off for Bangladesh late on the first day in Chittagong, and it's a combination is likely to work better for them in Test cricket

Bangladesh's decision to field five bowlers is one that the team management should be encouraged to take more often. This Test was the second occasion when they tried out such a combination in the past four years, and they were rewarded instantly.

Shakib Al Hasan and Abdur Razzak got the late wickets of centurion Kane Williamson and Brendan McCullum to leave New Zealand on 280 for 5. The day mostly belonged to the visitors but, with the extra bowler, Mushfiqur dared to take the second new ball as soon as it was available. He wasn't intending to use both pacers at the time, but the harder, newer ball was always going to give the two left-arm spinners more bounce and a little more bite off the pitch.

The addition of Razzak was necessary. Effectively, he replaced Ziaur Rahman in the line-up, but the inclusion of Razzak actually kept Mahmudullah - who has been played as a specialist batsman in Tests recently - out. Mahmudullah's sudden lull in form - 34 runs in his last six Test innings - played against him. He insists that form isn't an issue as he has scored some runs in the Dhaka Premier League, but it is time for Mahmudullah to look for a different role.

As a specialist batsman, he has been employed at No. 8 for ten Tests out of the 17 he has played so far, between 2009 and the first Test against Zimbabwe last May. He has scored 591 runs at this position, including a century and four fifties, averaging 42.21 with a strike-rate of 60.80. The numbers seem fine but it is extremely rare for a team to play a specialist batsman that low down the order. In fact, none of the 29 players who have scored more runs than Mahmudullah there are specialist batsmen. Their stronger suit is bowling or wicketkeeping.

It was always a defensive move, but previous selectors have described it as a necessary move to insulate against top-order collapses. But what it has done in the past is offer too much comfort to the batsmen above Mahmudullah, resulting in him having to clean up the mess with the tail.

Instead, Razzak's presence in the attack means that Shakib can bowl freely and be used sparingly by Mushfiqur. This was probably the first time in the last five years that Shakib wasn't bowling when Bangladesh had spinners attacking from both ends. Sohag Gazi too could be used properly, despite bowling a long first spell.

Bangladesh played four and a half bowlers in their last Test also, which resulted in a 143-run win over Zimbabwe. Ziaur Rahman, who made his debut in that game batting at No. 8 and was asked to bowl his medium-pace, took four wickets in the second innings. Some called it a lucky move because Ziaur's bowling had lost its bite several years ago after a knee injury, but one extra bowler capable of even holding up an end matters for Bangladesh.

With only the four bowlers at his disposal, Mushfiqur often delays making attacking moves. The spinners are usually tired, trying to do both, maintain the run-rate and pick up wickets. The seamers are not fresh, as they have to toil with the old ball from one end. Shakib has had to plug away for 35-40 overs a day, often the only attacking and defensive option.

Moreover, Mushfiqur has to consider the fickle nature of his batting line-up when handling his bowlers. There have been times when the bowlers didn't have the time to have a considerable amount of rest before they had to bowl a second time in the game.

The result of this Test match or the ones that follow should not push the management into thinking that a batsman at No. 8 is necessary. It doesn't add strength to the line-up, it offers unwanted comfort. The Bangladesh top order is aggressive, so those batsmen being made to take on a bit of extra responsibility wouldn't hurt. A second innings chase or a final-day save could be one of those days when the No. 8 would be missed but the onus would fully be on the top seven, enough batsmen for any side.

Most importantly, it is not just runs that would win them a Test match. Five bowlers would give them more opportunities to take the 20 wickets that would actually get them closest to a Test win.

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SA plan on sole spinner for Pakistan Tests

If Claude Henderson, South Africa's spin consultant, had it his way, he would "absolutely," play all the slower bowlers available to him in the two Test series against Pakistan. Head coach Russell Domingo has indicated South Africa will go into the series with just one specialist spinner, likely to be Robin Peterson, but Henderson hopes the others can also play a role.

"It's going to be such a tough decision, especially if we know it will turn square, to decide who to leave out," Henderson said. Along with Peterson, South Africa have recalled Pakistani-born legspinner Imran Tahir to the squad and have the services of JP Duminy, who is set to play a bigger role with the ball.

None of them was able to extract much from the pitch during the practice match in Sharjah - one that Peterson called so flat it is "difficult to tell anything on, in terms of skill level", but Henderson said they've all been hard at work to fight for a Test spot. He was particularly pleased with the progress Tahir had made after being dropped following a dismal showing in the Adelaide Test against Australia last year, when he conceded 260 runs and did not take a wicket.

"It's great to see Imran back after a tough time. It was really brave of him to come back and perform today. He is in a good space at the moment," Henderson said. Tahir got better as the day went on but started with a spell that questioned whether he had made any progression at all. His first spell included too many full tosses and made use of too many variations, but he started to trouble the batsman towards the end of the day as he turned the ball a touch and zoned in on better lengths.

In complete contrast, Peterson needed no time to adjust and immediately did a good holding job. He was also the first bowler to take a wicket. "Robin is improving day by day, in terms of tactics and technically," Henderson said.

Duminy was also economical and created chances towards the end of the day, one just missing Asad Shafiq's outside edge, to endorse Peterson's claim that he is a "genuine wicket-taker." Duminy will likely bowl a significant number of overs in the Test series as South Africa groom him for greater things. "JP is now realising he can bowl and his challenge is now to become a good all-rounder," Henderson said.

With Duminy and Peterson likely to start, South Africa will have two slower bowling options but Peterson confirmed it remains a dream of his to play in an attack with Tahir: "I'd love to play in a Test match for South Africa with two specialist spinners. I love bowling with Imran and I think we work well together."

Despite equipping themselves adequately with spin, South Africa are being realistic about their prowess in that department. When asked to rate his spinners using Pakistan's as a yardstick, Henderson refused. "I won't compare my spinners to anyone else," Henderson said. "I look at a guy and see how he can become the best bowler he can be. I will not say go and be like Saeed Ajmal, because that is the standard."

Even Azhar Ali, the Pakistan No. 3, would not be drawn into talking about the two attacks. An expert blocker, both on the field and in the press conference, he merely said it was "difficult to say" how South Africa's spinners measure up but that it was "enjoyable batting against them." Read what you will into that.

It probably indicates what we all already know: that pace remains South Africa's strength, even on subcontinent-like surfaces. That's why what the fast bowlers ended up with may have had them questioning whether they will be able to get results on tracks on the tour.

Only Morne Morkel took a wicket while Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander were made to work hard. Peterson does not believe the way they performed today is a reflection of how they will do in the coming two weeks. "Dale and Vernon are quality bowlers and when they put on that Test cap and walk over the white line, that's something completely different," Peterson said.

The same has been said of Graeme Smith, who was the only South African in the top five not to score a half-century on the first day of the match. He will cross the boundary rope tomorrow to try and rectify that and show his readiness for next week's Test.

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