Cricket-Australia recall Clarke for Sri Lanka ODIs

Jan 14 (Reuters) - Australia captain Michael Clarke is one of three big names to return to the squad for the third and fourth one-day internationals against Sri Lanka after a disappointing showing by stand-ins on Sunday.
Opening batsman David Warner and wicketkeeper Matthew Wade were the others to be recalled for the matches in Brisbane on Friday and Sydney on Sunday, with all-rounder Moises Henriques also given a chance to impress.
The 25-year-old Portuguese-born Henriques scored 18 runs and took one wicket in his two previous ODIs for Australia against India in 2009.
"Moises is a young man who has shown promise for some years with both the bat and the ball," Cricket Australia National Selector John Inverarity said in a statement.
"This will be an opportunity for him to impress as we look for a good seam bowling all-rounder."
Aaron Finch and Steve Smith, who struggled in the eight wicket loss to the tourists on Sunday that levelled the series at 1-1, were dropped from the 12-man squad with Usman Khawaja, Kane Richardson and Ben Cutting also making way.
Wicketkeeper Brad Haddin was also left out after suffering a hamstring injury in the Adelaide loss but Mitchell Starc and Mitchell Johnson have been named despite injury concerns.
Australia's rotation policy has been criticised by a number of former players but Inverarity defended the system.
"The three different formats and the amount of cricket and the amount of travel is very different from the past," Inverarity told reporters.
"The other key factor that's not often mentioned is the lack of proper conditioning periods. It's very difficult to find an extended timeslot when they can undergo appropriate conditioning."
Changes will also take place in the coaching set up for Friday's clash at the Gabba with Steve Rixon taking over the head coach role with Mickey Arthur returning home to South Africa to spend time with family before the Sydney match.
The fifth and final ODI will be played in Hobart on Jan. 23 before Sri Lanka wrap up their tour with two Twenty20 matches.

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Sharapova starts Australian Open with 6-0, 6-0 win

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Maria Sharapova finished her first match of the year in 55 minutes Monday, cruising to a 6-0, 6-0 win over Olga Puchkova to start proceedings on center court at the Australian Open without showing any signs of trouble with her sore right shoulder.
The No. 2-ranked Sharapova, who lost the final to Victoria Azarenka here last year before going on to win the French Open, faced only two break points in the match and she saved both of those in the first game.
Then she went on a 12-game roll that earned her a second "double bagel" inside a year.
Sharapova started her run to the French Open title with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Alexandra Caduntu at Roland Garros last year. But she said the score line wasn't really relevant.
"If you win 7-6 in the third, you've still won the match," she said.
Sharapova withdrew from the Brisbane International earlier this month with an injured right collarbone, saying she wanted to concentrate on being fit for the season's first major. She skipped the tournament last year, as well, before going on to reach the Australian Open final.
"After a couple of close games and a few break points, I certainly started to concentrate a bit better," she said. "I didn't want to concentrate on the fact I hadn't played a lot of matches. I just wanted to focus on what was ahead of me and really be aggressive.
"It was one of those matches where I didn't try to worry about her too much."
Sharapova has a potential third-round match against Venus Williams, who needed just an hour for her opening 6-1, 6-0 win over Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan.
No. 4 Agnieszka Radwanska won the last nine straight games in her opening 7-5, 6-0 win over Australian wild-card entry Bojana Bobusic 7-5, 6-0 and 2011 U.S. Open champion Samantha Stosur beat Chang Kai-chen of Taiwan 7-6 (3), 6-3 to end a run of five losses on home soil.
Sixth-seeded Li Na, who lost the Australian Open final before winning the 2011 French Open, had a 6-1, 6-3 win over Sesil Karatantcheva of Kazakhstan, while No. 18 Julia Gorges of Germany and No. 27 Sorana Cirstea of Romania also advanced.
On the men's side, No. 10 Nicolas Almagro of Spain beat American qualifier Steve Johnson 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-7 (6), 6-2, No. 15 Stanislas Wawrinka beat German qualifier Cedrik-Marcel Stebe 6-2, 6-4, 6-3 and No. 16 Kei Nishikori of Japan had a 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 win over Romania's Victor Hanescu.
No. 32 Julien Benneteau of France ousted rising Bulgarian star Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-2, 6-4.
Venus Williams played with power and determination and took command of the match early with a steady stream of winners and powerful serves.
She skipped last year's Australian Open due to illness and was warmly welcomed with applause as she entered the court. Venus Williams had the biggest jump of any of the top players in 2012, moving from outside the top 100 to finish the year at No. 24.
The announcer told the crowd as Williams, who has won seven major titles, was warming up on court: "She's back and fiery."
Williams said she was happy with the match statistics, particularly her serve, so early in the season.
"I don't think my opponent quite got the hang of ... you know, it's hard to play the first match in a major, first thing of the year, and that can be a lot of pressure,' Williams said. "I did my best to just close it out."
Her younger sister, Serena, was sitting in the crowd with coach Patrick Mouratoglou. Serena is the strong favorite to win the Australian Open, heading into the tournament with 35 wins in her past 36 matches including titles at Wimbledon, the Olympics and the U.S. Open.
No. 3-ranked Serena Williams is in the top half of the draw with defending champion Victoria Azarenka, and the pair won't start until Tuesday.
Novak Djokovic starts his bid to be the first man in the Open era to win three consecutive Australian titles later Monday with a first-round match against Paul-Henri Mathieu of France.
The top-ranked Djokovic shelved the conventional preparations for a while on the weekend, warming up for a shot at a third consecutive Australian title with a bit of weekend hit-and-giggle and a Gangnam Style dance with Serena Williams.
That was for kids' day, when thousands of people flocked to Rod Laver Arena to see 2012 Australian champions Djokovic and Azarenka hitting in a just-for-fun match with players including past champions Roger Federer and Williams and a cast of human-sized cartoon characters.
From Monday, it'll be all business. His five-set, 5-hour, 53-minute win over Rafael Nadal in the final last year has already been written into Australian Open folklore, and followed his titles at Melbourne Park in 2008 and 2011.
"This is my most successful Grand Slam. But this Grand Slam is also known for a lot of surprises, players who have been reaching the final stages who are not expected to. We'll see. The Australian Open always brings something interesting."

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Tennis-Australian Open order of play - day two

MELBOURNE, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Order of play on the main
showcourts at the Australian Open on Tuesday (play starts at
0000 GMT on all courts, prefix denotes seeding):
Rod Laver Arena
Robin Haase (Netherlands) v 3-Andy Murray (Britain)
1-Victoria Azarenka (Belarus) v Monica Niculescu (Romania)
Benoit Paire (France) v 2-Roger Federer (Switzerland)
From 0800
Bernard Tomic (Australia) v Leonardo Mayer (Argentina)
20-Yanina Wickmayer (Belgium) v Jarmila Gajdosova
(Australia)
- - - -
Hisense Arena
10-Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark) v Sabine Lisicki (Germany)
3-Serena Williams (U.S.) v Edina Gallovits-Hall (Romania)
7-Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) v Michael Llodra (France)
6-Juan Martin del Potro (Argentina) v Adrian Mannarino
(France)
- - - -
Margaret Court Arena
Carla Suarez Navarro (Spain) v 7-Sara Errani (Italy)
Francesca Schiavone (Italy) v 8-Petra Kvitova (Czech
Republic)
29-Sloane Stephens (U.S.) v Simona Halep (Romania)
Marinko Matosevic (Australia) v 12-Marin Cilic (Croatia)
From 0800
Gael Monfils (France) v 18-Alexander Dolgopolov (Ukraine)
- - - -
(Compiled by Nick Mulvenney; Editing by Patrick Johnston)

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New Zealand show fight against South Africa

PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa (Reuters) - New Zealand fought bravely to move to 157 for four in their second innings, following on and still 247 runs behind South Africa, at the close of the third day's play in the second test on Sunday.
Unbeaten pair BJ Watling (41) and Dean Brownlie (44) provided stern resistance and the duo looked relatively untroubled as they added an unbroken fifth-wicket partnership of 73 off 27.2 overs to steer their team to the close of play.
Opener Martin Guptill contributed 48 before being bowled by seamer Rory Kleinveldt who went on to have Daniel Flynn (0) caught behind with his next delivery.
Kleinveldt ended the day with two for 31 while left-arm spinner Robin Peterson, who accounted for Brendon McCullum (11) and Kane Williamson (11), claimed two for 29.
The tourists showed far more determination with the bat than they had in their first innings when they subsided to 121 all out in reply to the top-ranked hosts's 525-8 declared.
Watling said that while the pitch was providing some variable bounce it was still good for batting which would aid New Zealand's seemingly impossible task of at least forcing South Africa to bat again.
"It is a little bit variable and there are a few balls staying quite low. It's still a reasonable track and we need to keep fighting away tomorrow morning and keep wearing them out," Watling told a news conference.
The morning session had belonged to speedster Dale Steyn, the world's top-ranked bowler, who claimed five for 17 off 13 overs to bundle New Zealand out 30 minutes before lunch, at that stage trailing South Africa by 404 runs.
Watling provided the one shining light for the tourists in their first dig as his battling 63 off 87 balls with 13 fours added some gloss to the innings.
ATTACK OR DEFEND?
Steyn, while expressing some sympathy for the situation that New Zealand find themselves in, said that the introduction of the second new ball soon after the start of play on day four could settle the test.
"It's a difficult situation when you have been asked to follow on and you are so many runs behind. How do you go about batting? Do you attack or do you defend? It is a tough one for them," he said.
"We are 13 overs away from the second new ball so if we can knock one over tomorrow with the older ball then get the new ball to talk a bit and get some swing then that would help," he added.
New Zealand began the day on a parlous 47 for six and the pair of Watling and Doug Bracewell (7) added 14 runs to the overnight total before the right-handed Bracewell prodded at a Steyn delivery to send an outside edge through to keeper De Villiers.
Steyn struck again one run later when he trapped the left-handed Neil Wagner (0) leg-before with an in-swinging delivery.
The 29-year-old Steyn was not done yet and in his next over he bowled Jeetan Patel (0) after the batsman backed away from a good length delivery.
Steyn enjoyed a wonderful morning as he claimed his 19th five-wicket haul in tests as he sent down a spell that produced figures of 5-3-3-3.
Watling and Trent Boult (17 not out) then provided some late resistance with a last-wicket stand that produced 59 runs, a New Zealand record 10th-wicket partnership against South Africa beating the 57 scored by Simon Doull and Richard de Groen scored in Johannesburg during the 1994/95 season.
The aggressive Watling was the last man out, caught at first slip off the bowling of paceman Morne Morkel.

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Australian wildfires spare observatory, uncover bush drug lab

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Raging wildfires destroyed at least another 28 homes and licked at Australia's leading optical space observatory on Monday, officials said, but spared giant telescopes that have mapped far-away galaxies and discovered new planets.
Less fortunate were a father and son who police arrested after a fire was lit deliberately to destroy illegal drug laboratories they were alleged to be running in dense bushland. Police were closing in on the drug labs when the fire was lit.
More than 140 fires are burning across vast areas in the north and west of New South Wales state (NSW), Australia's most populated state, and in the island state of Tasmania despite cooler weather giving firefighters some respite.
A searing heat-wave had fuelled the fires over the past week. Only one person, an elderly firefighter working alone in Tasmania, has died so far in the fires.
The biggest blaze, with a perimeter of 100 km (60 miles), destroyed around 40,000 hectares (100,000 acres) of bushland and 28 homes around the Warrambungle National Park in NSW.
That fire also forced the evacuation of the Siding Springs Observatory, which houses 15 major telescopes.
Cameras inside the mountain-top observatory showed large flames and thick smoke sweeping over it. There appeared to be little damage to telescopes and dishes but scientists have been unable to visit the site yet to assess any damage.
"We do not yet know what impact the extreme heat of the ash might have on the telescopes themselves," said Erik Lithander, acting vice chancellor of the Australian National University, which operates the observatory.
The fire damaged five buildings at the observatory, including accommodation for visiting astronomers, but Lithander said scientists were confident the telescopes would still work.
Siding Springs is home to the 4-metre (13 ft) Anglo-Australian Telescope, which has surveyed 200,000 galaxies and was instrumental in confirming the existence of dark energy.
That discovery led to Australian Brian Schmidt sharing the 2011 Nobel Prize for physics.
The observatory has also helped find more than 30 new planets over the past decade and is being used to map the southern sky.
In Sydney, police arrested two men late on Sunday over a fire that broke out in the Blue Mountains National Park west of the city last week. The fire destroyed more than 50 hectares of bushland in the Blue Mountains, a popular tourist destination.
Police said they had been aware of the illegal, outdoor drug labs but were forced to postpone a raid due to the extreme fire danger in the area last week.
"The two sites ... were only accessible by foot and required police to trek through tick, leech and snake-infested scrubland to reach them," NSW police said in a statement on Monday.
Police said a father and son had been charged with "the large commercial manufacture of a prohibited drug" and contaminating a water catchment area. The younger man was also charged with lighting the fire.

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