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“The party’s on Jesse Ryder tonight, that’s for sure!” bellowed Tony Greig into the Colombo night as an expressionless Ryder left the dais with the Man-of-the-Match and Man-of-the-Series awards. It was a significant moment: Ryder walking back towards his cheering and clapping New Zealand team-mates, shoulders drooped, unfazed by defeat or victory. His contributions, after being a phantom through the two Tests, had played a big part in putting the smiles back on New Zealand faces.He backed up a decent score and two sensational pieces of fielding on Wednesday, with a brutal 52 and another catch tonight. Such moments and contributions were what it took, along with a few personnel and wardrobe changes, to inject life into what had been, until two evenings ago, a lacklustre time in Sri Lanka for the visitors. “Yeah, it was good to hit a few off the middle,” Ryder said after the match. “I’ve struggled a bit since I got here, so it was good. Baz [Brendon McCullum] got the team off to a good start, and our bowlers backed it up after that.”New Zealand were in control from the outset, with Ryder and Brendon McCullum launching a high-spirited and overdue partnership at the top of the order – New Zealand’s second-highest in Twenty20s. Impressively, their new-ball pair also played their part, and Nathan McCullum’s under-rated offspin cut short Mahela Jayawardene on 41 and Angelo Mathews for 1, all in a killer 11th over. After being reduced to 11 for 3, including the first-over dismissal of their standout Twenty20 batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan, Sri Lanka were always up against the odds.Daniel Vettori termed the series win as incredibly satisfying and paid tribute to the start provided by the openers, who returned to form in style. “It started from the partnership of [Brendon] McCullum and Ryder – it’s so important in this format of the game that your openers or top three get you off to a great start, and I couldn’t really ask for too much more from those two,” he said. “Bowling is a lot easier when you have 170 on the board, but you still have to back that up and I thought the guys did that brilliantly.”Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara briefly threatened to make a fist of things during a 67-run stand in 43 balls, with Ian Butler bearing the brunt. The two veterans played with immense confidence; Jayawardene was particularly innovative, illustrated by a padde-pulled six between fine leg and deep-backward square leg off Butler. That stand resuscitated Sri Lanka’s hopes of chasing down 171 but it wasn’t to be.Vettori introduced Nathan McCullum in the 11th over, and the offspinner struck twice during it. Nathan McCullum, elder brother of Brendon, has been a steady bowler in Twenty20s and his figures of 2 for 18 tonight took his bowling average to 15.62 after ten matches. He presented further credentials as a clever bowler and thinker, varying his pace in the first over, dismissing Mathews with a ball that dipped and beat the batsman in flight. “Nathan McCullum took that advantage away from Sri Lanka, and we probably cruised from there on,” Vettori said. “Whenever we’ve given him a chance he’s impressed. He was probably our best bowler at the World Twenty20 and he made a difference here too. It’s good to have players like that.”Another player Vettori was pleased to have was Shane Bond, who took three wickets, the first of which was retribution for a hammering in his first over on international return two days ago. Bond took out Dilshan in his first over this time and nipped out two at the end. “Our death bowling was particularly impressive and Shane showed how he’s coming along,” Vettori said. “He’s only had one bad over out of seven. The way he’s handled himself, I think he’s only going to get better and better. He was very impressive at the death. “With the 50-over contest four days away, New Zealand are bristling with confidence. It would be a mistake to brush off their 2-0 series win as an irrelevance before the tri-series, also featuring India, on Tuesday and the Champions Trophy later this month. This achievement may have well set the tone for things to come. Sri Lanka, especially, should dismiss this loss at their own peril.Sangakkara said his team will have to fight to regain lost momentum after they were defeated in both Twenty20 contests. “We gave them too many runs in the field, and it was not the greatest of starts,” he said. “Apart from that we gave it our all, I have to say they outplayed us. There are a lot of things to work on going into the one-day series. Our bowling has been very good in the recent past, but they had one off-day today. Our batting unit needs to start firing.”

Match facts

Monday, October 5, 2009
Start time 1430 (1230 GMT)

Big picture

Leader of men: Daniel Vettori has got the most out of the resources available to him•Getty Images

Underdogs in films make a mockery of the form book. Exhibit 1: New Zealand come to the Champions Trophy, sans superstars, sans high ICC rankings, and after being well and truly battered for more than a month in the sapping heat of Sri Lanka. They are – it is fair to say – the outsiders in this tournament.Underdogs in the movies start out of their depth, find the happy knack of winning, and then start liking what they feel. Exhibit 2: New Zealand are outclassed by South Africa on a true Centurion pitch. Then Sri Lanka, fooled by the earlier two pitches at the Wanderers, put New Zealand in, and discover they have given their opponents first use of a batting beauty. Against England, New Zealand get a spitting beauty of a pitch, call right at the toss, and run through the batting.Underdogs in the movies are hit by injuries, handicaps, and miseries, but every setback inspires them. Exhibit 3: New Zealand lose Jacob Oram before their campaign starts. Jesse Ryder pulls his left abductor muscle during the Sri Lanka game, but before leaving plays the kind of innings that must have led to the coining of the phrase “beware the wounded batsman”. Then Daryl Tuffey, at the time looking their best bowler, breaks his hand while fielding and is ruled out for the rest of the tournament. Next up, Grant Elliott, hero of the win against England, breaks his thumb, but braves the injury to score a heroic unbeaten 75 in the semi-final.The real villains start appearing only in the later stages of underdog movies. Exhibit 4: On paper Pakistan have everything they need to end this underdog tale, but their occasional overconfidence and exceptional play from the underdogs take New Zealand to the final.Underdogs in the movies meet the biggest, scariest villain right at the end. Exhibit 5: It is always Australia’s fate, or that of any champion team, that their excellence, consistency, their hard work, will always be seen as villainous in romantic underdog stories. We can also conveniently forget that they too lost three of their most important players – Nathan Bracken, Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin – in the lead-up to the tournament. Champions, though, don’t deserve such considerations. Every good underdog story needs a mean villain, and Australia have rarely failed to oblige at world events.If more context is needed, New Zealand have historically seen Australia as big brothers, and have always sought to bring their best against them. Moreover, New Zealand are yet to beat Australia in a tournament final, and have lost six times (tournaments with more than one final have been considered as one). Centurion will not provide them with a freak pitch either. It’s all stacked up against New Zealand this time, and no self-respecting underdog story would have it any other way.How good this story is will be known by Monday evening, or rather early on Tuesday morning in Australia and New Zealand.

Form guide

(last five completed matches, most recent first)Australia – WWWLW
Ominously they are peaking at the right time. Even more ominously they have survived the one token scare that champion sides face, in the game against Pakistan.New Zealand – WWWLL
Their weakened line-up has made the rest even more determined. They will rely a lot on their bowlers and fielders to find a balance between defence and attack, and restrict Australia like they did Pakistan.

Team news

Both teams gave satisfactory performances in the semi-finals, and both are more or less settled – even if not entirely by design.Australia (probable): 1 Shane Watson, 2 Tim Paine (wk), 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Hussey, 5 Cameron White, 6 Callum Ferguson, 7 James Hopes, 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 Brett Lee, 10 Nathan Hauritz, 11 Peter Siddle.A discussion on allrounder Brendon Diamanti has its merits – Neil Broom hasn’t had much to do in the tournament – but New Zealand are not likely to tinker with a winning combination. And the way Elliott came through the semi-final, a big worry for them has been taken care of.New Zealand (probable): 1 Brendon McCullum (wk), 2 Aaron Redmond, 3 Martin Guptill, 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Neil Broom, 6 Grant Elliot, 7 James Franklin, 8 Daniel Vettori (capt), 9 Kyle Mills, 10 Shane Bond, 11 Ian Butler.

Watch out for…

Daniel Vettori is definitely in the running for the Player-of-the-Series award. Against Sri Lanka he rescued a floundering middle order, and against Pakistan he promoted himself to No. 6 and guided a nervous side through to the final. And that’s besides his routine job, during which he has taken seven wickets at an average of 17.71 and an economy-rate of 3.97. He is now four wickets short of the leading wicket-taker of the tournament, Wayne Parnell.Ricky Ponting has a habit of turning it on on the big day. But he is a bruised captain, too, the only Australian leader since time immemorial to have lost the Ashes twice. He has also led them to successive unsuccessful campaigns at ICC events. When was the last time they failed to win three majors in a row?Shane Watson is a threat to Vettori for that series award. He has taken six wickets at 16.83, and put behind him the lean run with the bat that he experienced at the end of the England series and at the start of this event. If he bats like he did in the semi-final, we could be in for a swift finish.

Pitch and conditions

Centurion, apart from the Pakistan-Australia game, has had flat batting pitches, which could made it harder for New Zealand to pull off an upset. A 30% chance of precipitation means we should get a complete game.

Stats and trivia

• New Zealand have entered 13 tournament finals before this, and have won four of those.
• Since their 1999 World Cup triumph, Australia have reached 19 tournament finals, and have lost only three: in 1999 to Sri Lanka in Colombo, and two CB Series finals to England and India in 2006-07 and 2007-08 respectively.
• The whole New Zealand team has scored six ODI centuries between them (Ross Taylor 3 and Brendon McCullum, Martin Guptill and Grant Elliott one each), Ponting has 28.
• Australia have beaten New Zealand in six tournament finals. This will be their first meeting in a final at a neutral venue.

Quotes

“We are playing at a level which would win us the big games. We look to play best cricket when it matters. We are peaking at the right time for the finals.”
“But once you reach that level, you realise there is an immense desire to go all the way and I think there’s no relief in the camp. It was all about how we’re going to win tomorrow as opposed to it’s great the we’ve made it”
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Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, has said it is open to an annual or biennial Test final to make the longer form of the game more exciting and attractive. Lorgat agreed that it was important, to arrest the general dwindling interest in Tests, to build context around the format and infuse meaning for every series.”At the next chief executives committee [CEC] meeting (to be held on November 30 and December 1) we will have more discussions and find a way of creating context for Test cricket,” Lorgat told Cricinfo. “That does not necessarily mean a Testchampionship, but we could work towards a Test final every year or ever second year but that depends on the mechanics of how you work out the model.”A day after releasing the 2011 Word Cup schedule in Mumbai, an exercise that Lorgat admitted was nothing short of climbing a mountain, the ICC’s CEO appeared relieved and said he now had more time to actively pursue important issues on the back burner in the recent past. Apart from the health of Test cricket, Lorgat said he wanted to make the 50-over game, something critics had said was on its last legs, much more appealing to fans and players.”There is no doubt that there is an opportunity to create a few tweaks that would enhance the ODI game,” he said.Lorgat was quick to pitch new ideas: “The middle overs in an ODI is an area where we could experiment with something like the Powerplay component. At the moment the fielding side takes it immediately after the ten-over mark; perhaps that could be changed. Also, the batting side should take the Powerplay before the 40-over mark because the last ten overs are always a dash for runs. Maybe we need to consider lifting the limitations on bowlers: should they be restricted to ten overs? Typically the bits-and-pieces bowlers come into play during the middle overs where nothing much is happening, but if there is a penetrative bowler things could be different.”It is easy to forget Lorgat once was an allrounder for Eastern Province and Transvaal before moving on to become a selector and now an administrator. For the moment, Lorgat is happy making suggestions while remaining open to them. He welcomed discussions about a possible Test championship, which he said was still under consideration. “If I was pressed for an answer the ideal would be some form of a championship where you collect points and work towards a stage where four teams play in the semi-finals and then a final.”His idea was similar to Martin Crowe’s recent suggestion to stage a knockout World Test Championship with the final played annually. Crowe presented his proposal to the ICC’s Cricket Committee in September with an aim to address the problem of declining interest in contests between lower-ranked Test teams and the danger it posed for the longer format.Lorgat said both the CEC and even the ICC board were open to Crowe’s theory, which recommends integrating the model into the existing fixtures lists and television contracts. “I think it is possible – the system devised by Crowe – because you are taking existing fixtures, turning them into a set of points and then having four teams contesting in the semis and two in the final,” Lorgat said.Clive Lloyd, who chairs ICC’s Cricket Committee, will bring his thoughts to the table at the CEC meeting; members will then discuss it again at the Board meeting to be held on February 10-11 next year.Lorgat said Crowe’s model would be an idea worthy of “testing out in full”. But the biggest challenge was one of practical application, because, at the moment, “everybody does not play everybody”. Still, he acknowledged such a model would provide the Test game with a “context” that would help generate greater interest.”There would be more relevance and meaning for even a third game where I’m one country and you are second country and we are playing each other and all of our fans are interested. But my fans would also be interested in a game involving two other countries because that result might impact my country’s progress. At the moment unless your home country is playing one doesn’t have much consideration for any series involving other countries.”

Former West Indies fast bowler Joel Garner, recently appointed team manager for the tour to Australia, has said he hopes to instill in the squad a sense of the pride with which they dominated world cricket in the past. Garner, also a West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) director and president of the Barbados Cricket Association, will travel with the side to Australia for their three-Test tour of Australia.”There are some things that are non-negotiable, things like discipline, punctuality and I think that players know and understand that there are some things that are not negotiable, the way we approach our cricket, the way how we train, all of those things will come back into force,” he said.”The West Indies team that we had that was a good West Indies team of the 70s and 80s was not all talent. We were successful because we worked hard and we took the time out to do the things that were right and to bring the cricket up.”Garner aimed to make a difference on the tour in an attempt to revive West Indies cricket whichhas faltered, more especially over the past two decades, through weak leadership and general mismanagement. “I’m looking at bring back some of those values that made us great, back into the team,” he said. “The first thing you have to do is start talking and let them understand what it takes to get to the top. You don’t just really want to make the squad, you want to make the team and you want to keep working, you want to keep performing.”Chris Gayle was recently reappointed to lead the team, marking the end of the contractual dispute between the striking players and the WICB. Garner said the time had come to forget the bitter contractual row and strive to put West Indies back at the top of the cricketing map.”What is happening in world cricket [is[ there are divisions where you have four or five world teams who are at the top and they want to go it alone and they want to play more cricket between themselves because they have the bargaining power,” he said. “We have to understand we have to get from the position of number eight to be in those top four to be a force to be reckoned with in world cricket.”The time to put aside all the nonsense [has come] and [we have] to look forward in a positive way. If you are only going to come to the party and not participate in the party then you’re in the wrong sport.”Senior players such as Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Dwayne Bravo also returned to the squad for the three-Test series following the strike, while youngsters such as Adrian Barath, Kemar Roach and Gavin Tonge made the cut as well. For Garner, 56, one challenge was to ensure team unity.”We have a challenging period ahead with the merging of the fellows who played during the strike and those fellows who were on strike,” he said. “It is going to be a challenge to sort of get everything working smoothly and get them to play competitive cricket while we are in Australia.”That’s what is going to take most of the time and when we talk about the players who were playing and those who went on strike, this is where they need to understand they need to move on. We have to look at the future of West Indies cricket we have to look at what is happening in world cricket.”

Doug Bollinger claims he’s loud and obnoxious but that hasn’t stopped him slipping completely under the radar of the West Indies camp. Bollinger will take the new ball against Chris Gayle and Adrian Barath in the second Test at the Adelaide Oval and is certain to let the visiting captain know who he is after Gayle revealed on the day before the match that he hadn’t looked into Bollinger’s credentials.”Two left-armers – we’ll see how well we can go about it,” Gayle said, when asked about facing Bollinger and Mitchell Johnson. “What’s the other guy’s name? Bollinger? Bollinger. This will be the first time I am going up against him. It’s a challenge. I haven’t seen much of him to be honest with you. I’m sure we’ll get some clippings and take a look at him and see what we can make of him.”Most people don’t quite know what to make of Bollinger, who has come in to the side to play his second Test after Ben Hilfenhaus was ruled out with a knee problem. Hilfenhaus was the Man of the Match at the Gabba, where he collected five wickets for the game and made key top-order breakthroughs in both innings.Gayle wouldn’t mind seeing the back of Hilfenhaus, who in both innings trapped him lbw with deliveries shaping back in to the left-hander. It’s an angle that Gayle is vulnerable to early in his innings but Ricky Ponting still felt his attack had the ability to target Gayle’s stumps early in the innings, even without the swing of Hilfenhaus.”The left-armers can still do that,” Ponting said. “That angle that the left-armers create actually does bring the ball back in towards the stumps. If Mitch and Doug aren’t actually bowling genuine outswingers to him then the ball is always going to be pitching in and around off stump and straightening back that way. That’s similar to the way we got him out at the Gabba. We did get him out trying to bowl really straight to Chris at the Gabba and there’s no doubt that we’ll do something pretty similar here.”The addition of Bollinger to Australia’s attack robs it of only a small amount of Test experience, while the visitors have lost Jerome Taylor, their most qualified fast man, to a back injury. West Indies’ green line-up provides Australia’s batsmen with an excellent opportunity at a ground that is always hard work for the fast bowlers. After five Australians made half-centuries in Brisbane but none converted them to hundreds, Ponting was keen to see some bat-raising and helmet-kissing.”One thing we didn’t quite nail last week was the amount of guys that got off to starts and didn’t go on and get the big hundred,” Ponting said. “We’ve spoken about that in our team meeting this morning and it’s something that we want to improve on. We all know how good a wicket this can be to bat on once you get in and get set so with an inexperienced attack, we’d like to think that the experience in our batting should be able to get us through and we should be able to make some big runs in the game.”The one man who did miss out completely in Brisbane was Shane Watson, who is still trying to prove that he can be a long-term Test opener. His duck in Brisbane looked particularly bad because he was trapped leaving a delivery that cut back into him, and Ponting said although Watson was vulnerable to lbws early in his innings, he was confident the allrounder could turn things around in Adelaide.”It hasn’t only been in Test cricket, he’s been out a bit in one-day cricket as well lbw,” Ponting said. “He’s very much aware of that. He works on that all the time. The one up at the Gabba the other day is probably an unusual lbw in the fact you let one go that nips back on you early on. I don’t think there was too much technically wrong with what he did last week. With a good batting wicket here and an inexperienced attack hopefully he’s one of the guys that can make some big runs for us.”While Australia will be looking to Watson and Co to provide the runs, West Indies will rely heavily on their experienced men Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, who is likely to return from a back injury, and Gayle. The West Indies captain just has to hope that the name that troubled him – “Bollinger?” – isn’t written beside his own on the scorecard too early in the innings.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were outYuvraj Singh followed up his three-wicket haul with a fiery 60 off 25 balls to help India home in a high-scorer•AFP

Yuvraj Singh gave himself a 28th birthday present with three wickets and a witheringly powerful half-century as India became only the second team to successfully chase more than 200 in a Twenty20 international. Kumar Sangakkara’s dazzling 31-ball 59 had been the foundation of Sri Lanka’s imposing 206 for 7, but with Virender Sehwag clearing the ropes with ease during his 64 off 36 balls and MS Dhoni contributed a rapid 46, India eased home with five balls to spare. In the process, they recorded the highest chase, surpassing South Africa’s 208 against West Indies in the 2007 ICC World Twenty20.When Yuvraj is on song, modest medium pace really isn’t the answer, and Sri Lanka discovered that the hard way. For much of the chase, the game was in the balance, but two overs turned an arduous trek into a stroll. First, Kaushalya Weeraratne was pummelled for sixes over long-off and long-on in an over that cost 21, and then Nuwan Kulasekara was thumped a long way over cover and long-on in a 23-run over. To add to Kulasekara’s woes, Tillakaratne Dilshan let one slip through his fingers for four, with Yuvraj then on 40.India had fielded appallingly once again, dropping five catches, but Sri Lanka were little better, missing direct hits by the bushel and catching poorly as well. The outcome might have been very different had Sanath Jayasuriya managed to take Sehwag on the run at mid-on when he had just 14, and if Chamara Kapugedera hadn’t spilled a chance at deep midwicket when Dhoni had just one.Sehwag certainly exacted a heavy toll. The hapless Weeraratne was twice walloped over cover for sixes, and Angelo Mathews met with the same fate. His entrance into the bowling attack had hardly been auspicious, with Dhoni whipping one down to the sightscreen.After Gautam Gambhir was run out going for a third run off a misfield, India appeared to have the chase under control but a superb 11th over from Lasith Malinga got Sri Lanka right back into contention. He conceded only four and had Sehwag caught straight down the ground. But then came Yuvraj and his six blitz, and it was perhaps fitting that he clinched it with another nonchalant heave over long-on.Earlier, Sangakkara had followed up his 37-ball 78 at Nagpur with a blistering innings. Jayasuriya weighed in with 31 from just 21 balls, and there was a punishing 38 from Chintaka Jayasinghe. India were generous hosts, with Sangakkara reprieved by Ravindra Jadeja on the midwicket boundary, and Jayasinghe benefitting twice as Ashish Nehra and Gambhir failed to hold on to mistimed slogs.Sangakkara had started with a fluid cover-drive after Ishant Sharma had sent Dilshan’s leg stump cartwheeling. He then slammed Sudeep Tyagi, the debutant, over point for six before a fortuitous inside edge for four. He continued to drive beautifully through cover as the 50 of the innings took just 4.3 overs.Jayasuriya struck one incredible six over cover off Nehra and by the end of the Powerplay, Sri Lanka had 73 for 1. Dhoni opted for spin as early as the sixth over, but both Yusuf Pathan and Suresh Raina struggled, with wides aplenty down the leg side. Pathan finally trapped Jayasuriya in front to end an 81-run partnership that took just 6.3 overs, but by the halfway stage, there were 107 on the board.Sangakkara got to his half-century with a smashing shot over midwicket for six, but Yuvraj finally got his Kings XI Punjab team-mate as the encore found Nehra at wide long-on. Mahela Jayawardene, another IPL “local”, came in and cut Jadeja for four, before a big heave off Ishant went for six, but when he tried to repeat the stroke, Tyagi held on to the chance.Kapugedara holed out in similar fashion off Yuvraj, and Jayasinghe, who had clouted a six over long-on off Jadeja, finally ran out of luck when he swung one to deep square leg. With Weeraratne run out after a poor call from Mathews, Sri Lanka’s innings threatened to run out of fizz in the final stages.But Mathews flicked Ishant for six and Karthik dropped yet another chance on the rope at square-leg as the damage done in the early overs was reinforced. Mathews finished off with another meaty six as India squared up to the depressing reality of a fifth successive Twenty20 loss. Fortunately for them, their big-hitting boys came out to play. And how.

Scorecard
Rob Nicol grabbed two wickets and scored a half-century•Getty Images

Auckland slipped to their second consecutive defeat, against Canterbury at Colin Maiden Park, despite a quickfire half-century from Ravi Bopara. The Canterbury bowlers bowled economically, grabbing the first five wickets for 76 as the Auckland batsmen struggled to consolidate on starts. However, Bopara rescued them, adding 64 with Anaru Kitchen, and struck three fours and two sixes on his way to an unbeaten 55 to lift the team to 144. Rob Nicol was the pick of the Canterbury bowlers, taking 2 for 19 in four oversThe effort, though, proved inadequate, as opener Nicol starred with the bat, too, anchoring the Canterbury innings with a 35-ball 52, and Johann Myburgh held his nerve to score a run-a-ball 37 to guide his team to a five-wicket win with just one ball to spare. Canterbury lost their fifth wicket off the first ball of the final over but the pair of Myburgh and Kruger van Wyk, who struck a six in his three-ball nine, sealed Auckland’s fate.

Match abandoned
ScorecardFebruary is often a very wet month in Zimbabwe, and this tournament had been blessed with six days of dry weather, but lightning and rain during the match between Matabeleland Tuskers and Desert Vipers at Harare Sports Club scheduled on the one half-day meant it became the first washed-out game. Desert Vipers reached 147 for 4 thanks to a steady 44 from Raymond van Schoor and a rather more violent unbeaten 48 from Dwaine Pretorius, and Tuskers had reached 23 for 1 in the fifth over when the match was abandoned.After they won the toss and batted, van Schoor gave Desert Vipers a rollicking start, and after three overs they had raced to 30 without loss. Gavin Ewing, Tuskers’ captain, brought himself and Keith Dabengwa on early, and with much less pace to play with from their flighted spinners, the run rate immediately dipped. Craig Williams hit both for a six, but he and van Schoor were out to successive deliveries, as Vipers reached 75 for 3 in the 14th over.From then on, Pretorius took over, but he had quite a lot of ground to make up and not too much support. He used the Powerplay to good advantage, driving and pulling powerfully, and hit Keegan Meth for two successive straight sixes to end the innings. Ewing was Tuskers’ most economical bowler, conceding only 19 runs off his four overs. He did not take a wicket, but his bowling undoubtedly changed the course of the innings.Lightning and rain could be seen approaching during the Vipers’ innings, but the umpires and players decided to ignore the drizzle and the bad light and continue the game. The Tuskers batsmen clearly struggled to see the ball up at the start, and yet another ridiculous mix-up saw Ewing run out for 1 as the rain grew heavier.Charles Coventry was almost run out as well soon afterwards, but he soon began to locate the ball through the gloom and followed up with two boundaries in the same over. But the weather finally closed in and the players left the field in the fifth over with steady rain falling. There was never any likelihood of the match being resumed.

The curator at Eden Gardens, Prabir Mukherjee, has said that he received phone calls from a BCCI official instructing him to prepare a “turning track” for the second Test between India and South Africa beginning in Kolkata on February 14. However, the Indian board’s chief administrative officer, Ratnakar Shetty, said he was not “aware of any such request”.India go into the second Test in danger of losing their No. 1 ranking after they were thrashed by an innings and six runs in Nagpur. That pitch had plenty of turn but the Indian spinners were ineffective, while Dale Steyn and the other South African fast bowlers rattled the batsmen with conventional and reverse swing.”I got a call from one of the BCCI officials requesting me to prepare a turning track as per the wish of the team management,” Mukherjee told the . “However, I have clearly told him that I want an official communication, like an email, stating what should be the nature of the wicket. Also, I don’t know how we can change the nature of the strip overnight.”Mukherjee said he was told to prepare a surface that would suit the “Indian brand of cricket” but said he would not risk “a repeat of the Feroz Shah Kotla pitch fiasco”, where an India-Sri Lanka ODI had to be abandoned in December because the surface was deemed dangerous to play on.”Test cricket is meant to be played on good wickets. Can anyone please define what exactly a turner is?” Mukherjee told the . “If you want the ball to turn square from day one, why do you need a curator? The Eden Gardens wicket will have even bounce and decent carry. Spinners will come into play as the match meanders along.”When South Africa toured India last in 2008, they went into the final Test in Kanpur with a 1-0 lead and were beaten on a pitch that had variable bounce and turned sharply from the first day. The Test ended inside three days and the ICC asked the BCCI for an explanation after the match referee criticised the pitch in his report.

After nearly a month of wrangling, the concerns of the foreign players regarding security during the IPL seem to have eased with Reg Dickason, the independent security expert appointed by the player unions from Australia, England and South Africa, receiving an official update from the league’s security experts.Tim May, the Federation of International Cricketers Association (FICA) chief, called the development a welcome step in the on-going discussions, which came to a standstill after the IPL’s initial refusal to cooperate.”The one outstanding issue (as) per Reg’s report is that while Nicholls-Steyn’s (the agency in charge of IPL security) plan is sound – it is nothing more than a series of recommendations that are made to local security authorities,” May said. “They may or may not be agreed to by the local authorities.”In fact, that was Dickason’s biggest concern, and he advised the player bodies to make a note of that in their meetings with the players. He also requested the IPL for formal confirmation from the local authorities that the recommendations would be implemented. “Despite media comment from IPL officials that such government assurance has been given – Nicholls-Steyn have advised Reg that they can not get such assurances,” May said.To avoid any further clash, it was suggested by FICA that the IPL needed to declare what the local security was willing to help with. “As a compensating measure we recently requested from IPL a status report of what has or hasn’t been confirmed and proposed a system of communication regarding any shortfalls of the required plans,” May said. “Reg received this update and commitment regarding ongoing communication last (Sunday) evening. This is positive in terms of accurate information that we are able to put in front of the players.”Last week, Dickason dismissed the threat from 313 Brigade, the operational arm of Al Qaeda in Pakistan, after having deemed it credible in his initial assessment report. But, simultaneously, he had asked the IPL to specify to him the security implementations at the various venues.The league officials, however, were unwilling to share any such information and Lalit Modi, the IPL chairman, was vocal in his resistance over sharing security details with the player unions and even warned the foreign players of losing their lucrative IPL contracts in future. Left with no choice, Dickason prepared his original report after reviewing the security plans the IPL sent to various national cricket boards.May had warned the tournament organisers that such stiff resistance could only worsen the issue and even lead to mass withdrawals. FICA had been entrusted by the Australian Cricketers’ Association, England’s Players Cricketers’ Association and the South African Cricketers’ Association to liaise with the IPL.Modi, though, appears to have softened his stance since. “Already a lot of the players are on planes on their way to India and will arrive in the next few days,” he wrote on his Twitter page. “Security is very important to us. We have not had to change our plans, I think it is more a case of the players now understanding them. I think they are more comfortable with the plans being implemented.”