Symonds and Suman keep Deccan alive

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were outT Suman was strong over the on side•Indian Premier League

It was just another day at the office for Deccan Chargers until T Suman became their first Indian domestic cricketer to perform, guiding an improbable chase and keeping his team alive in the tournament. Good start with the ball, falling apart at the end – it was a familiar script until Suman wrote new lines, scoring 78 off 57 from No 3. Andrew Symonds, who had conceded 23 in the 17th over, facilitated a 21-run 17th over during the chase en route to 53 off 24 balls, as Deccan went about scoring more than 100 in the last 10 overs.Deccan bowled well to have Royal Challengers Bangalore at 68 for 4 in the 11th over, but seemed to have forgotten how to bowl when they went for 92 runs in the last six. Once again, during the chase, Adam Gilchrist scored a quick thirty but failed to convert it into anything substantial.Suman, however, had been promoted to No. 3 and Deccan had reached the 11th over by the time Gilchrist’s 19-ball 32 ended. Gilchrist didn’t get much strike, and Suman had put his share to good use, reaching 41 off 34. It wasn’t the cleanest innings: stylish hits off length balls were offset by streaky boundaries off inside edges.In the next over Rohit Sharma fell too, leaving Deccan with 90 to get off 50 balls. The turnaround started with a thick edge from Symonds, but he followed with a four off a yorker next ball. Suman followed suit, hitting Anil Kumble for a six to bring up his fifty in the next over, and 62 off 33 didn’t read much worse than from where they started.The streaky shots from Suman had disappeared by then, and he continued with a six off Vinay Kumar in the 16th over, but the symbolic moment was yet to come. Symonds had to make good for his bowling effort, and make good he did by thumping Praveen Kumar. An edge flew over the keeper, a slower ball was deposited over midwicket, and a yorker-gone-wrong hit into the sight screen. Forty-nine from 24 balls had become 28 off 18, and from there it was only a matter of avoiding the famous Deccan choke.Suman took the lead, hitting Dale Steyn for four after he seemed to have found a good yorker rhythm. Symonds upset Kallis’ rhythm when he missed the yorker by about a foot, and finished the game by hitting Vinay for a six and a four off the first two balls of the last over.It should never have been that big a chase for Deccan. They had Bangalore struggling, but let them double their 14-over score, vindicating their reputation as the worst bowling side at the death, taking their tournament economy-rate in last six overs to 11.44 an over. Next-worst is 9.89.Despite little support from Harmeet Singh, RP Singh and Mitchell Marsh, Ryan Harris had managed to keep Bangalore down to 46 for 1 at the end of the Powerplay. Harris went for just five in two of those overs. Ojha and Symonds followed Harris’ good work with three wickets in three overs, including the massive ones of Robin Uthappa and Ross Taylor.In the last six overs, though, Jacques Kallis and Virat Kohli went berserk in the absence of yorkers and abundance of length balls and hit six sixes and eight fours in the last six overs, as opposed to two sixes and seven fours in the first 14. Kallis reiterated his importance in the line-up with his sixth fifty of the tournament, and Kohli showed he could dabble in the power-hitting business too, going from 12 off 18 to 58 off 35. One of his sixes hit the roof at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, but by the end of the night their semi-final prospects – almost a certainty before the match started – had taken a hit.

Chanderpaul, Benn star in 18-run victory

Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s fluent 64 took West Indies to a match-winning score of 171•Getty Images

Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s 64 and Sulieman Benn’s three-wicket haul were the highlights of West Indies’ 18-run victory in the second Twenty20 at the Sabina Park. The win gives the hosts a 2-0 lead with one match to play.Asked to bat by the visitors, West Indies motored along to 171 for 7, on the back of a 72-run stand off 49 balls between Chanderpaul and Wavell Hinds. Chanderpaul’s 64 came off 47 deliveries with eight fours and two sixes while Hinds struck three fours and two sixes in his 29-ball blitz.West Indies were set for a strong finish by the two left-handers, but the middle order could not drive home the advantage. Alex Cusack grabbed 3 for 19 in three overs as five wickets fell for 26 runs.Ireland’s chase got off to a frenetic start thanks to Paul Stirling who stroked 33 from 19 balls with four fours and a six, and captain William Porterfield who made 17. Niall O’Brien who came in next kept up the scoring rate with a 44-ball 62, inclusive of six fours and two sixes. Ireland looked set for a possible upset, when Chanderpaul ran out Stirling to set the visitors back.Benn then intervened to ensure there would be no surprise, with a stifling spell of 3 for 32. Cusack crawled to 15 off 22 boundary-less balls as the chase lost momentum and eventually floundered. Benn was supported well by his spinning colleagues Nikita Miller and Narsingh Deonarine, who turned in 1 for 37 in seven overs between them.With 24 required of the final over, the game was close to over when Benn almost grabbed a hat-trick, but it was not to be. The third Twenty20 fixture is on Sunday.

Any World Cup loss is huge and it stings – Gambhir

India opening batsman Gautam Gambhir has expressed his disappointment at the team’s poor performance in the World Twenty20, saying “any World Cup loss is huge and it stings.” He disagreed with the notion that the IPL had affected the players’ form.”Just because we don’t show our emotions does not mean we are not affected by the loss. It is misleading to think IPL played any part,” Gambhir told . “We got about 10 days after the finals, which is good enough to recharge.” He went on to say the IPL parties were not the problem either and that the IPL is one of the best things to happen to Indian cricket.He also defended MS Dhoni’s captaincy, arguing that the man who plotted Kieron Pollard’s dismissal in the IPL final could not have turned into a bad captain over the course of a few weeks. “The fact that Dhoni could think in that pressure situation was commendable and at that time he was called ‘Captain Cool’ and what not,” Gambhir said. “How can he become redundant within a fortnight?”On the subject of the criticism the team received after failing to win a single game in the Super 8 stage, Gambhir said one bad tournament should not overshadow the fact that India is the top team in Tests and the No. 2 in ODIs. He reminded fans that India won the first World Twenty20, an ODI tournament in Australia for the first time (CB Series in 2007) since the 1985 Benson & Hedges World Championship, won a Test series in New Zealand after almost 40 years, beat England at home 5-0, and came back from behind to win a Test series against South Africa.”He was also dismissive of the suggestion that the batsmen could not handle pace and bounce, saying, “If that was the case, how do you think we won in Durban (2007 T20 World Cup), at Melbourne or in New Zealand?” However, he did admit that “in this format you have to attack at all times. When you are chasing 190-odd like we did against Australia you can’t be ducking or swaying to bouncers.”

England not scared of playing Australia anymore – Warne

England have scored two major victories against Australia in less than a year – the ICC World Twenty20 final and the Ashes in 2009 – and Shane Warne believes they now have the mindset and the team necessary to try and accomplish the hardest challenge in cricket – winning a Test series in Australia. In his column for the , Warne wrote that England took “a small psychological advantage” from beating Australia in Sunday’s final in Barbados and sent a message that “they [Australia] have to play very well to beat them [England] now in any form of the game”.”In the past, they [England] thought that if they played at their best they might nick a win. Now they think, “We can beat this lot”. That feeling of being scared of playing Australia has disappeared,” Warne wrote. “Australia were just starting to build a bit of momentum and find some consistency in the aftermath of losing last year’s Ashes. But the first time they came up against England in a final, they lost.”Warne, however, said the Ashes in Australia was the hardest series to win and England were whitewashed 5-0 on their last trip there in 2006-07. But this squad, Warne felt, had the “right tools” to succeed in Australia later this year. “In Graeme Swann they have a spinner who, when you examine every format of the game, is the best in the world right now,” Warne said. “In Kevin Pietersen, England also have, not the best, but the most destructive batsman.”Pietersen was the Player of the Tournament in the West Indies, having scored 248 runs at an average of 62. Warne said the IPL and the World Twenty20 helped Pietersen rediscover his touch which was vital because, apart from his contributions, Pietersen’s team-mates also fed off his form.”He [Pietersen] was struggling in the Test arena. When he gets into trouble he gets technical and reads too much into things. He is best when he plays on instinct and in Twenty20 there is not much time to think. You just have to go out there and hit the ball. For the last couple of months he has not had to worry about technique and building innings. He has just had to smack the ball and impose himself. To be the Player of the Tournament will be great for his ego.”It is also great for England because all the other players seem to walk a bit taller when KP is playing well. They feed off him. Also the opposition concentrates on getting KP out so much that it allows others to play with freedom.”Warne also called Swann the “most improved cricketer in the world.” “What has struck me most is that as an offspinner there are only certain ways you can get people out. But he [Swann] has more than that, he really changes his pace well. Normally when spinners bowl faster they lose their spin. But he can bowl quicker deliveries and still turn it. It is a very good gift and he can adapt it to all forms of the game. He is always trying to work out in his mind how to get wickets. That is what I like about him – he attacks.”

Buck ends Yorkshire's run

Scorecard
Yorkshire’s run of three consecutive Friends Provident t20 victories was ended by Leicestershire who beat them by six runs at Headingley. Nathan Buck did most of the damage for the visitors by firing out the first three home batsmen in his first two overs with the new ball.Although Yorkshire never quite recovered from this early setback, the result was in doubt right to the final ball which Richard Pyrah needed to hit for six to tie the match. It was delivered by Leicestershire captain and former Yorkshire and England bowler Matthew Hoggard, and Pyrah lashed it high towards cow corner where it was calmly held by James Benning.Yorkshire ended on 169 for 8 as they chased a target of 176 and the Man of the Match was Leicestershire batsman James Taylor, who got his side out of trouble with a sparkling unbeaten 62 from 28 balls with three fours and four sixes.Buck’s second ball was looped by Adam Lyth to Wayne White at cover and hissixth dismissed South African Herschelle Gibbs leg before wicket attemptingto sweep. His third victim was Anthony McGrath who was also lbw to one which nipped back, the 19-year-old fast bowler finishing with 3 for 20 in only his third match in the competition.Andrew Gale and Jacques Rudolph put on 53 for the fourth wicket to steady the ship but Rudolph was then lbw to Benning and it became 88 for 5 when Gale was run out, perhaps unfortunately, for 52 from 39 deliveries with five fours and a six. White hit the stumps with a direct hit but replays suggested that the bowler, Claude Henderson, may have first disturbed a bail.An enterprising knock from Jonny Bairstow renewed Yorkshire’s hope, and Ajmal Shahzad, released from the England one-day squad, cracked two consecutive sixes off Josh Cobb. In his solitary over, Cobb had already dismissed Bairstow and he also accounted for Shahzad who holed out to Taylor on the boundary edge.Winning the toss, Leicestershire were given an encouraging start by Brad Hodge and Benning who had added 55 together by the ninth over before Adil Rashid struck with the first of his four wickets which came at a cost of only 20 runs.He owed his first success to the athleticism of Lyth who caught Hodge’stowering hit on the long-off boundary. Before his momentum took him over the line, Lyth tossed the ball into the air and caught it again when he came back inside the rope.Will Jefferson belted Rashid for six in the legspinner’s next over but thenimmediately fell lbw sweeping and the bowler signed off with two wickets in his final over as Benning was bowled for 41 off 31 balls and Paul Nixon trapped in front.Taylor quickly retrieved the situation for Leicestershire and he was particularly effective moving well outside his off stump to hit to leg. He took consecutive boundaries off Tino Best and hooked and cut Shahzad for two sixes in one over before thrashing Steve Patterson for two sixes and a four in an over which cost 21.He was given solid support by White whose contribution to an unbroken 81 stand was 23 from 19 balls with a four and a six.

Australia A fight back to seal thrilling tie

Sri Lanka A 8 for 257 (Chandimal 59, Karunaratne 53, Feldman 3-43) tied with Australia A 7 for 207 (Wade 45) on D/L method
Scorecard
Queensland’s Luke Feldman took three wickets on his one-day debut•Getty Images

Australia A’s lower order snatched a tie against Sri Lanka A to keep the three-match one-day series alive. The hosts scrambled 16 runs and lost Moises Henriques in the final over in Townsville before Xavier Doherty’s four through cover-point prevented the visitors from leading 2-0.Rain reduced Australia’s chase to 208 in 34 overs after Sri Lanka had posted 8 for 257. The locals suffered a severe setback when they lost three wickets in 14 balls to be 4 for 107, but they refused to give in. After Adam Voges (33), Matthew Wade (45) and George Bailey (3) went, the chase was revived by Andrew McDonald and Henriques.When they combined Australia needed 72 at nine an over, with McDonald rushing to 36 off 29 and Henriques collecting 32 off 25, including a six to long-on from the fourth-last ball. Henriques was then run-out chasing a risky second, leaving Doherty to seal an unlikely win under lights.”Sri Lanka played extremely well,” Australia’s coach Greg Chappell said. “They were attacking with the bat, bowled quite well and fielded brilliantly. After getting off to a solid start we fell in a bit of a hole when we lost those few quick wickets, but I was extremely pleased that we were able to work our way back into the match again.”The opener Dimuth Karunaratne set the platform with 53 after Sri Lanka were sent in and Dinesh Chandimal eased to 59 off 69. Jeevan Mendis chipped in with 42 and Chamara Kapugedera helped out with 38 before Luke Feldman caused some late damage.Feldman, the Queensland fast bowler, used to play in Townsville and he picked up 3 for 43 off eight overs in his first List A one-day match. Feldman took the new ball with James Pattinson (2 for 37) but his breakthroughs didn’t come until the end of the innings when Sri Lanka were chasing quick runs. The final game of the series is in Brisbane on Saturday.

Bangalore keen to retain foreign players

Royal Challengers Bangalore have expressed their desire to retain Jacques Kallis, Ross Taylor and Cameron White for the Champions League Twenty20 in South Africa in September. The home teams of the three players – Warriors, Central Districts and Victoria respectively – have also qualified for the tournament, and Bangalore will now have to pay those teams US$200,000 each according to the tournament’s rules to keep the players.Bangalore had reportedly been reluctant to retain the three players but the unavailability of England batsmen Eoin Morgan and Kevin Pietersen prompted a change of mind. “At that time, we didn’t realize we would be without [Kevin] Pietersen and [Eoin] Morgan. But when we saw that they would be unavailable, as they would be playing for England against Pakistan in a ODI series, we changed our minds,” Brijesh Patel, the chief executive of the Bangalore franchise, told Times of India. “The idea is to have all three but then we have to see how it goes. We are hoping they all choose to play for us.”Mumbai Indians have picked Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard in their preliminary squad of 20 for the tournament, and should Trinidad and Tobago win the ongoing Caribbean T20 competition, they will be in a similar situation.

High-flying Wayamba take on improving Warriors

Match facts

Saturday, September 11
Start time 1330 (1130 GMT)Mahela Jayawardene was unstoppable for Wayamba in the SLC Inter-provincial Twenty20 tournament•Manoj Ridimahaliyadda

Big Picture

The Champions League, for some reason, has grouped all the champion sides in one group, and the runners-up in another. The best sides from India, Sri Lanka, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand make up Group A, while Guyana are the only champion team in Group B. On the face of it, Group A should produce cricket of a higher quality. Wayamba Elevens and Eastern Cape Warriors begin the fun in this competitive group on Saturday.The two sides have taken different routes to qualification. Wayamba are easily the most dominant T20 side in Sri Lanka, with a wealth of talent in Mahela Jayawardene, Thisara Perera, Farveez Maharoof, Ajantha Mendis and Chanaka Welegedara. After having bossed the league stages of the SLC Inter-provincial Twenty20, they thrashed Ruhuna by a whopping 95 runs in the final. Jayawardene alone scored 91, which was only 22 less than the opposition’s total.Warriors, on the other hand, were the last of the six franchises in South Africa to win any trophy, despite the occasional presence of big players like Jacques Kallis, Mark Boucher, Ashwell Prince, Makhaya Ntini, Nicky Boje and Rusty Theron. When they did win one, though, there was no stopping them. Less than two months after they won their first 40-over title, they sealed the domestic 20-over crown too. Six months later, they are vying for the big one.

Watch out for…

Mark Boucher struck a hurricane eight-ball 27 in the domestic final against the Lions at the same venue. Unlike Kallis, he has not been poached by their IPL side, Royal Challengers Bangalore, for this Champions League.Ajantha Mendis might not be the mystery he was in 2008, but he is still a terror for batsmen who haven’t faced him before. Especially if those batsmen are not traditionally good against spin.

Key contests

Mahela Jayawardene v Makhaya Ntini Jayawardene is relishing his new role of opening the innings, both in Twenty20s and ODIs. He has scored centuries in the World Twenty20 and the IPL, and missed out on one in the Sri Lankan domestic final. Ntini, no longer in favour for the national side, should be more than a handful in home conditions, setting up a good contest at the top of the innings.

Stats and trivia

  • Jeevantha Kalatunga’s unbeaten 62-ball 104 against Kandurata is the highest individual Twenty20 score in Sri Lanka, and the fastest century in the country.
  • Nicky Boje has the joint-highest number of lbw dismissals, 13 in a career tally of 57, to his credit in all Twenty20 matches. Muttiah Muralitharan and Shahid Afridi, also on 13 lbws, have taken 83 and 88 Twenty20 wickets respectively

Quotes

“We have seen a lot of footage of them. But then again it’s Twent20 cricket. It’s about individuals turning up on the day and performing.”
Mahela Jayawardene says Wayamba have done their homework on the Warriors“We are one of the few teams that has played CLT20 before, and that experience will be to our benefit.”

Badrinath leads TN to third consecutive win

S Badrinath’s unbeaten half-century gave Tamil Nadu a third consecutive win, as they comfortably beat Hyderabad by six wickets at the Gymkhana Ground.Medium-pacer C Ganapathy had started positively for Tamil Nadu by bowling Hyderabad captain Ravi Teja in the second over. Tamil Nadu kept striking regularly throughout the innings, reducing Hyderabad to 72 for 6 in the 15th over. Akshath Reddy – who was part of the India squad for the 2010 Under-19 World Cup – took Hyderabad past 100 before he was bowled by L Balaji for 34 in the 18th over. Rain intervened at that point and the target was revised to 101 from 17 overs.Hyderabad medium-pacers Pagadala Naidu and Ashish Reddy ran through the Tamil Nadu top order, leaving them struggling at 57 for 4. But Badrinath stood firm, hitting three sixes and as many fours in his unbeaten 51 off 40 deliveries as Tamil Nadu won in 15 overs.P Prasanth’s all-round performance took Kerala to a four-wicket victory against Karnataka, in another rain-hit match at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.Karnataka’s spinners had Kerala in trouble at 76 for 6, chasing a rain-adjusted target of 110 from 14 overs. However, Prasanth came in at No. 8 and smashed four fours in his unbeaten 21 off 11 deliveries to take his side home with an over to spare.Prasanth’s left-arm spin had restricted Karnataka to 149, after Manish Pandey and Robin Uthappa added 80 to take them to 110 for 1 in the 14th over. Pandey made 49 off 45 while Uthappa – who also had three dismissals behind the stumps later – was more aggressive in his 38 off 26. However, both fell to Prasanth who finished with 3 for 20.Goa won their first game of the tournament at the Gymkhana Ground, scraping home by three wickets to hand Andhra their third consecutive defeat.Fast bowler Saurabh Bandekar led a disciplined performance by Goa’s bowlers in a match shortened to 16 overs-a-side, as Andhra lost half their side for 44 runs. Hemal Watekar ensured Andhra would have a modest total to defend, top-scoring with 41 off 29 deliveries.Sagun Kamat, the Goa captain, led the chase with 37 off 28 after fast bowler Syed Sahabuddin had jolted Goa with two early wickets. Left-arm spinner Shankara Rao struck repeatedly to leave Goa reeling at 86 for 7. However, No. 8 Robin D’Souza hammered 19 off 10 to bring up victory with two balls to spare.

Lorgat hits back at 'irresponsible' May

The ICC has reacted strongly to FICA chief Tim May’s comments about players not approaching its Anti Corruption and Security Unit [ACSU] because they have no faith in it. Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, said he was extremely annoyed by May’s remarks and even called them “irresponsible”. Lorgat said he would have normally preferred not to react but what had fuelled his ire was May’s point that the ICC leaked details to the media in the past of the players who approached its watchdog. That only led to players becoming more insecure, May said.”He said that the players have no confidence in approaching the ACSU. I felt quite strange that Tim May [was] making such comments,” Lorgat told ESPNcricinfo. He said he was trying hard to understand the FICA chief’s reasoning. “He either made that out of ignorance or I hope he is not being irresponsible. Those comments are certainly not justified in my view.”In an interview to BBC World Service on Thursday, May had praised former Pakistan wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider’s defection to the United Kingdom after receiving threats from unnamed people during the ODI series against South Africa in the United Arab Emirates. In London, Haider subsequently revealed to the media the reasons behind his escape. He even had a few suggestions for the ACSU including “tapping” the players’ phones to discourage the bookies.May said Haider had made an unprecedented and brave move. “If what he [Haider] says is true, what he’s done is not cowardly, it has taken a significant amount of courage, because no one has ever done that before,” May said. But May, a former Australian off spinner, said there were not many players like the Pakistani. “Some players have concerns about reporting [corruption]. They fear the confidential nature of them reporting it will be breached,” May said.According to May the players’ biggest concern was they feared the details they shared with the ACSU would be made public without their knowledge. “In the past, players have gone to the anti-corruption unit and somewhere details of their talks with the anti-corruption has reached the media. Whether those leaks have come from the ICC or whatever, it still gives the players the question over whether they can trust the ICC’s anti-corruption unit.”Lorgat was critical of May’s opinion and disagreed. “In fact we have got numerous players who have come forward and told us they were willing to talk,” he said, while stressing that neither the ICC nor the ACSU had ever gone public whenever a player revealed any kind of approach. “We have never done that,” he said.Lorgat also picked up on one of the May’s comments in the BBC interview, in which he stated that FICA had made a couple of suggestions to the ACSU recently which would encourage players to come forth with more information whenever any approach was made. “We have put forward a couple of options to the ICC in a meeting we had with anti-corruption unit in October for a change in the reporting system,” May said, and added that he was still waiting for a positive reply.Lorgat said May had only exposed his own hand here. “That is a classical example that he going to talk to media. The ACSU or ICC did not go to the media. In the past a few players made their own declarations about talking or speaking to the ACSU. We have made never made any disclosure about which player came and spoke to us. We don’t say who has come because we protect their identities.”

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