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Ferocity is a word you could often ascribe to Lee. At his best only the freak of nature that is Shoaib Akhtar could match the blond bombshell for pace and though he was almost inevitably overshadowed by McGrath, Gillespie and Warne in the great Australian teams of the turn of the century, there is little shame in that.

Indeed, with arguably the most metronomic duo in the history of the game hogging the overs for most of his career, the very fact that Lee managed to take 310 wickets in his 76 appearances speaks volumes for his destructive abilities.

As with most skiddy, attacking fast bowlers Lee could often be a tad expensive but it was more than compensated for by his relentless, boundless energy and above all, speed. As a sport, cricket has a surprising dearth of natural athletes but Lee truly bucked the trend.

The sight of the New South Welshman at his best was simply awesome. With a bouncing, fluid run up and high, open-chested action the ball would be propelled towards a cowing at a seemingly supersonic pace. When he was at his best it was the added ingredient of late swing which baffled batsmen the world over but even without it his speed could be too much.

For us English fans, Lee will of course be remembered for one series. Whilst McGrath busied himself falling over stray balls in practice and Gillespie had a very public crisis of confidence, Lee shed his image of a preening, Bondi showboat and proved himself both a gentleman and a bowler capable of leading a besieged attack.

Whilst the likes of Ponting and Katich were clearly affected by the torment of the English crowds, Lee revelled in it, effortlessly living up to the pantomime villain status he was given. And his villainy almost stretched beyond pantomime status. As England limped towards their target of 129 it was Lee, who along with Warne threatened to spoil England party taking 3-51 in a ferocious spell which claimed the wickets of Pietersen and Flintoff, the latter clean bowled with by a simply unplayable delivery.

And then there was Edgbaston; the greatest test and the games most iconic image of a distraught Lee, crouched down at the non-striker’s end as Andrew Flintoff bends down to offer him a consoling arm. Whatever Lee goes on to achieve in the remainder of his limited-overs career — and we can only hope that his body allows him to take advantage of the T20 boom for a few more years yet — his image is forever etched into cricketing infamy.

Yubraj singh

One of the major concerns for Kings XI Punjab ahead of the third season of the IPL is a long injury list, but they will be relieved that Yuvraj Singh, one of their most important players, is likely to be fit in time for the first game against Delhi Daredevils.

Yuvraj tore a ligament in his left wrist in late January and missed the second Test against Bangladesh and the entire series against South Africa that ended two days ago. He had been to Australia last week for treatment and is now looking forward to resuming batting. “I will start batting in three days,” he told 22yardscricket. “It’s been five weeks (since the injury), so yes, I should be good for the first game.”

Punjab were one of the best teams in the inaugural IPL, cruising into the semi-finals, but had a tough time in the second season, affected by the injuries to fast bowlers Sreesanth and Jerome Taylor, and the unavailability of Australian players for much of the competition.

Yuvraj has targeted at least a semi-final spot this year, and believes one of the keys to a strong performance will be having the entire squad fit and available for the tournament. “We had a good first year, made the semi-finals easily when we had our full bench of players,” he said. “So if we have our full bench of players not injured, we have a good chance of going through to the semi-finals.”

They have several important players struggling for fitness, though. Australian batsman Shaun Marsh, their standout performer in the first IPL season, became the latest worry after he was ruled out of the upcoming one-day internationals against New Zealand due to a back problem.

Their most expensive overseas player, fast bowler Brett Lee, is also beset with fitness problems. (However, IPL chairman Lalit Modi said in his Twitter page that Lee is arriving in India tomorrow). Lee is recovering from a painful elbow surgery that ruled him out of the entire Australian home summer campaign, and said a couple of weeks ago that he might never bowl again. He has only played two matches since spearheading New South Wales’ march to the Champions League title last October.

“We have a few injuries but we still have a bit of time to get fit for the first game,” Yuvraj said. Besides fitness issues, the lack of quality Indian batting back-up for Yuvraj is another of Punjab’s drawbacks, which makes it vital that allrounder Irfan Pathan recovers from the back injury that has kept him out of the preliminary squad of the ICC World Twenty20 in the Caribbean.

Ricky Ponting has credited his bowlers, and particularly Doug Bollinger, with rescuing Australia in Mohali to level the series 2-2. The Australians appeared to be in trouble when India were 78 for 1 in the 15th over, chasing 251 for victory, but in his fifth ODI Bollinger grabbed three wickets to set up Australia’s triumph.

“I thought Bollinger was outstanding,” Ponting said after the match. “He came on and his wickets probably brought us back into the game.”

Bollinger finished with 3 for 38 from his nine overs and helped restrict the scoring while his fellow left-armer Mitchell Johnson leaked runs. Shane Watson grabbed three wickets in the lower order when India were threatening a late fightback, and combined with two sharp run-outs from Ponting it added up to a strong performance in the field.

“It was good to get a couple of run-outs,” Ponting said. “Yuvi and I had a chat in the field and he called me a little bit slow, but I got one back on him tonight. We have worked hard on our fielding and I thought it has been at its best in the whole series tonight.

“It’s surely a good win for us, coming up short with the bat, but bowling and fielding very well. Peter Siddle got only five overs in the game which means we thought things out really well. The series is level again, it has been up and down all the way through and no team has been able to grab the momentum.”

Ponting said it was disappointing that Australia had failed to make the most of a strong start with the bat – four of their top five scored 40 or more. However, nobody else reached double figures and the innings fell away dramatically, with the final wicket falling for 250 in the 50th over.

“We felt we had missed out on a few runs out there with the bat,” he said. “At one stage it looked like we would get close to 300, but we didn’t capitalise on the Powerplay. We lost a few wickets leading up to our powerplay again and that’s been a bit of a problem for us through the series so far. But the boys bowled exceptionally well tonight.”

Australia were also fined for maintaining a slow over-rate during their 24-run victory. They were ruled to be two overs short of their target at the end of the match after time allowances were taken into consideration. Ponting was fined 20% of his match fee while his players received 10 % fines.

India’s powerful batting line-up has often had to compensate for errant bowling and slack fielding in the past but the tables were turned in Mohali. MS Dhoni praised his bowlers for restricting Australia to 250; he said the fielding effort was India’s best in the last one-and-a-half years; but he criticised the batsmen for a lack of partnerships which ultimately led to a 24-run defeat in the fourth ODI.

“It was a good effort by the bowlers to restrict them to a total like 250,” Dhoni said. “We got a decent start to our chase also. But subsequently, we failed as a batting unit. We should have batted the full 50 overs but that was not possible because we kept losing wickets at regular intervals.”

Dhoni defended his decision to field, saying the dew factor would have made it difficult for the bowlers to grip the ball under lights. “Dew is a big factor that always plays on your mind. From overs 15-40, generally the spinners do the job for us. That would have been taking a risk. Of course, it can backfire as well, so it’s difficult to choose. But we knew in Mohali, the wicket would not break much and ball would come nicely onto the bat with a bit of dew. I think our bowlers did a great job and 251 is something we should have scored.”

India’s chase had a terrific start with Virender Sehwag caning Mitchell Johnson for 30 runs off 14 balls. Australia began to fight back after Sehwag fell but India were on course while Sachin Tendulkar was batting. However, his dismissal for 40 – the highest score of the innings – was the beginning of the end as wickets fell frequently thereafter.

“We badly needed some partnerships going,” Dhoni said. “We got the start but we could not take advantage of that. If at least one batsman got going, it would have made things easy.”

Dhoni also said the younger batsmen like Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja and Virat Kohli would need to learn how to overhaul a difficult target. “Raina today got out to a beautiful delivery, while Jadeja was run out after a mix-up,” Dhoni said. “Batting at No. 6 or 7 is not easy, since you don’t get much opportunity to bat. You cannot pace your innings either, for you have to play according to the platform given to you. Sometimes, you have to accelerate or keep a partnership going. They are still inexperienced and I hope they learn from their mistakes.”

On the decision to send Kohli at No. 3, Dhoni said: “The best way to give someone an opportunity is to let him bat higher. At No. 6 or 7, you score 20-30 in quick time or can get out for 10-12 also. I think it’s important to give them a chance. Virat is a talented batsman, good on the field and brings in lot of energy.”

India’s defeat in Mohali prevented them from taking Australia’s No. 1 ranking in ODIs and the gap between the teams is now three points. The next match is in Hyderabad on November 5.