Scorecard
Sri Lanka Under-19s cruised to a seven-wicket win against England Under-19s in the third match of the triangular series being played in Colombo. Chasing 209, they cantered home with more than 11 overs to spare after a second-wicket stand of 106 between Kushal Perera and Dinesh Chandimal .Chandimal, the wicketkeeper, and Dilshan Munaweera added 68 in eight overs for the first wicket as Sri Lanka sped out of the blocks in their chase. Munaweera clubbed six fours and three sixes in a 32-ball 45 before being bowled by James Goodman but the momentum was firmly with Sri Lanka.Chandimal and Perera continued the comfortable progress with a pair of composed half centuries, adding 106 in 23 overs, as England’s bowlers laboured to find a breakthrough. Alex Wakely used seven options, however by the time Hampshire’s Liam Dawson struck, the match was a lost cause.Earlier, England had again been let down by their top-order batting, although not quite in the same way as the Pakistan match when they crashed to 44 for 5. James Taylor and Greg Wood both made 43 and Ben Brown followed his match-winning 93 against Pakistan with a brisk 38 off 24 balls. Sri Lanka’s bowlers, though, performed as a unit and the target proved a cakewalk.

The Indian board’s plan to rethink its earlier decision allowing the coaching staff with the national team to sign on full-time with any of the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises has not gone down well with the team management in Australia, Cricinfo has learnt. Two of India’s support staff have tied up with IPL teams for the six-week tournament but may have to pull out if the board does not agree.”What I fail to understand is how all the Indian players are being allowed to play for the IPL and not the coaches,” said a source close to the team’s support staff. “The players are still in contract with the BCCI and will be paid even when they are playing in the IPL so why not the coaches? Besides, when the players are involved with the IPL there won’t be any international matches involving India, so what should these coaches do?”Gary Kirsten, who will take over as India coach on March 1, has refused to be part of the IPL, saying he wants to concentrate on the forthcoming Test series against South Africa. But the bowling coach, Venkatesh Prasad, has tied up with the Bangalore franchise and the fielding coach, Robin Singh is slated to coach the Hyderabad team.A board official told Cricinfo there “might be a conflict of interest” later on and the BCCI wanted the coaches to be “wholly dedicated” to the national side.Interestingly, the source claimed that Prasad and Robin currently do not have a formal contract with the board, though they have been receiving monthly payments for their services. “These coaches are getting a monthly remuneration for their services and I can tell you it is well below the global salary levels,” the source said.Board officials, though, say both are contracted to them until May this year.

Victoria’s struggling top order will need to fend off a fired-up Brett Lee if the Bushrangers are to upset the favourites New South Wales in the Pura Cup final at the SCG. Despite playing only one match during the Blues’ campaign this season Lee is desperate to help his state finish the summer on top, according to the team’s coach Matthew Mott.”I know he’s fired up, he’s incredibly keen to do well,” Mott told the . “He’s never played in a shield final before and he’s absolutely champing at the bit. We’re hoping that if he doesn’t get the wickets he’ll at least rattle a few blokes for others to cash in. He’s certainly keen to play, very excited. The week off will do him good.”A Pura Cup title would cap off an incredible summer for Lee, who stepped up to be Australia’s spearhead following Glenn McGrath’s retirement. He was named Man of the Series in both of Australia’s Test contests, against Sri Lanka and India, and became the first bowler since McGrath to win the Allan Border Medal.Lee joins Stuart Clark, Nathan Bracken and Stuart MacGill in a Test-quality attack that will provide a serious challenge for Victoria, whose top order has hit a slump at the wrong end of the season. Brad Hodge, David Hussey and Cameron White continue to pose a threat in the middle but it is three months since the Bushrangers have had a 50-run partnership from their openers, Nick Jewell and either Rob Quiney or Lloyd Mash.Mark Cameron, the New South Wales fast bowler who has impressed with 27 wickets at 17.51 this season, is likely to miss out when the game starts on Saturday, to accommodate the returning Australia bowlers. Mott said it was disappointing for whoever was omitted but the Blues had a duty to field their best available side.”That debate always comes up but it’s something the players have been used to in New South Wales for a while, having such a big number of Australian representatives,” he said. “Sometimes you get the good end of it as well. The thing that the players have got to remember is if the Test players were around all the time they probably wouldn’t get an opportunity at all.”I think it makes them hungrier. It is very hard for the likes of Matthew Nicholson and Mark Cameron who have done exceptionally well all year. But they’ve all copped it pretty well. We love having the Australian blokes back and it’s special for the other guys to get to play with them, playing with the best players in the world. It’s something they look forward to.”

Wellington eased to an innings and 95-run victory over Auckland that was set up by the 246-run stand of Neal Parlane and Grant Elliott on the second and third days at Eden Park Outer Oval. Parlane’s career-best 165 and Elliott’s 108 pushed the visitors to a first-innings total of 524 for 6 declared and Auckland were able to scramble only 132 to add to their opening 297.Luke Woodcock, Wellington’s left-arm spinner, captured 4 for 24 and Mark Gillespie chipped in with three wickets while Charlie Shreck finished with six for the game. The England bowler James Anderson’s first experience with Auckland included 38 overs and two wickets in a losing cause. Wellington’s victory moves them to the top of the State Championship table, six points ahead of Auckland and Canterbury.Centuries to Johann Myburgh and Michael Papps drove Canterbury to a satisfying nine-wicket win as they posted an incredible 344 for 1 in 76 overs on the final day in Napier. Central Districts declared after Peter Ingram’s 79 and Greg Hay’s 127 got them to 347 for 6 shortly before lunch, but they were unable to make any breakthroughs after Todd Astle fell for 41. Myburgh completed an excellent game with his 148 from 154 balls, which included 16 fours and four sixes, complementing his opening 62, while Papps struck 134 to secure the victory.In the first innings Canterbury, who needed the contributions of Shanan Stewart (87) and Iain Robertson (85), looked in danger at 326 for 8 trying to overhaul their opponents’ 376, but Brandon Hiini (28) and Leighton Burtt (28) earned a small lead and the declaration came at 380. Central Districts were in big trouble on the first day at 122 for 6 and 158 for 7 before a 159-run partnership between Brendon Diamanti and Richard Sherlock. Diamanti, the No. 8, finished with 136, his maiden first-class century, while Sherlock picked up 64 in the recovery.Northern Districts had to settle for first-innings points when the rain-hit match against Otago in Invercargill ended in a draw. Brad Wilson reached his maiden first-class century to put Northern Districts, who also benefited from half-century help from James Marshall and Peter McGlashan, on track for 410 for 9 declared and the bonus for passing the home team’s 305.However, any outside hopes of a result were ended when the final day was delayed by the weather, which also stole time from the match on days two and three. Brent Arnel collected 5 for 80, his first five-wicket haul, as Otago fought their way from the struggles of 58 for 4 after being sent in on Thursday. Craig Cumming, the opener, collected 62 while Nathan McCullum and Brad Scott picked up fifties, but the top score went to the wicketkeeper Derek de Boorder with 74. In their second innings Otago reached 115 for 2 before time was called.

Mahela Jayawardene will not feature for Derbyshire this season owing to fixture clashes, the county has announced. Fans will be disappointed but perhaps not surprised after an already short stint was squeezed further by international demands.Jayawardene, the Sri Lanka captain, had planned to arrive after the Indian Premier League but with the Asia Cup being moved forward to June and changes to India’s tour of Sri Lanka, there was too little time to make even a shortened contract worthwhile, the county said.”This is obviously a disappointment but the landscape of cricket worldwide is changing very rapidly,” said Derbyshire’s chief executive Tom Sears, “and we are forced to accept that. Unfortunately circumstances have changed in recent weeks.”John Morris, the head of cricket, added: “It is a shame that Mahela won’t be coming this year but we took the sensible option of securing Chris Rogers’ services some weeks ago and he will play as our overseas player.”Morris said that Derbyshire may look to bring someone in specifically for the Twenty20 Cup if Rogers does not play the whole season. “That is something we will decide together in the coming weeks.”We have left things on a very positive note with Mahela and there is a strong possibility we will look at him coming to Derbyshire at some stage in the future.”Jayawardene said: “I was really looking forward to playing for Derbyshire this season and I am very disappointed that the dates did not work this time. I wish the club success during the coming season and hope that one day I will be able to play for them.”

Match facts

Sunday, May 11, 2008
Start time 10.00 (local), 04:30 (GMT)

The Big Picture

This is the fourth time in as many Asia Cups that India and Sri Lanka are going to meet in the final. India has won each of the previous three matches and Sri Lanka will hope that playing this edition at home will help them reverse the trend.India, though, have been by far the best of the subcontinent sides and haven’t dropped a single game since the tournament began in 2004. This year they have continued to win convincingly – twice by more than 180 runs and twice by five or more wickets. They beat Sri Lanka by 29 runs and by eight wickets in the league stage. Their top order is brimming with runs and three Indians lead the wicket-taking list.

Asia Cup form guide

India – WWWWWW
Sri Lanka – WLWWLW

Watch out for …

ScorecardJacques Rudolph still hopes to catch a fifth successive win [file picture]•Gallo Images

Glamorgan’s push for what would be a record-breaking victory was held up by a combination of determined batting and rain on the third day of the Division Two match against Derbyshire at Chesterfield.When the weather closed in with 23 overs still to bowl, Derbyshire were 37 without loss following-on, still 121 runs away from avoiding an innings defeat and with a lot of batting ahead of them to deny Glamorgan five consecutive championship victories for the first time in their history.The home side fell nine short of the follow-on target when they were bowled out for 252 with opener Billy Godleman the only batsmen to pass 50 while seamer Ruaidhri Smith returned career-best figures of three for 23 in 11 overs.The leaden skies at the start of play made conditions good for bowling and Derbyshire were soon in trouble as the ball swung for Graham Wagg and Michael Hogan.Derbyshire needed a substantial stand between Godleman and skipper Wayne Madsen but that was ended in the fourth over of the morning when Hogan found some late movement to have Madsen caught at third slip for 24.Godleman’s resistance ended when Wagg swung one back in and when Wes Durston was squared up in the former Derbyshire all-rounder’s next over, the home side had lost three wickets for seven runs in 17 balls.Shiv Thakor and Alex Hughes added 44 in 17 overs but David Lloyd had Hughes taken at second slip and Thakor should have gone on 17 in the next over from Craig Meschede but Hogan spilled a low chance at third slip.Smith accounted for Harvey Hosein and Tony Palladino and when Thakor skied a sweep at Andrew Salter, Tom Taylor tore into Hogan, pulling and driving him for three sixes before the Australian bowled him on the stroke of tea.With conditions unsettled and still favourable for bowling, Glamorgan immediately enforced the follow on but Godleman and Hamish Rutherford were largely untroubled in the 18 overs before bad light resulted in the sixth and final stoppage of the day.It was a frustrating end for Glamorgan, but skipper Jacques Rudolph said: “I thought the way we bowled in those last 17 overs we deserved one or two wickets. They played really well but I still think the game is wide open and if we start well in the morning we can put them under some real pressure.”Madsen said: “I think with the forecast being fair tomorrow we are going to have to bat most of the day which is possible. We batted for 80 odd overs in the first innings and we will probably have to bat for over 110 and get ahead so the realistic objective for us is to try and bat through the day.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details4:06

Arnold: NZ quicks’ variety was the clincher

In conditions where the old ball did nothing and New Zealand’s three first-choice quicks produced innocuous medium-pace, Neil Wagner ran in relentlessly with tremendous stamina, sending down a barrage of short deliveries, harrying the batsmen at around 140 kph and broke Sri Lanka’s resistance. Until Wagner came on, Dinesh Chandimal and Angelo Mathews had been untroubled and scored freely, but once he broke through his one wicket quickly led to many, and New Zealand completed a 122-run victory after lunch on the final day in Dunedin.Before Brendon McCullum turned to Wagner, Sri Lanka made 45 runs in 15.5 overs, and Mitchell Santner and Doug Bracewell had just begun to control a previously brisk run rate. Wagner immediately resorted to a short-pitched attack from over the wicket – like he had done on the third day – targeting the right-hand batsman’s ribs with men catching close on the leg side.Chandimal had been cover-driving and cutting Trent Boult and Tim Southee, his fierce punishment of anything loose taking him swiftly to a half-century. Mathews had played with softer hands and a straighter bat, batting with calm. Wagner gave them no width, no opportunity to get on the front foot, hustling them with pace, forcing hurried evasive actions and awkward fends off the body.Wagner’s method of attack had become so ingrained in the batsman’s psyche that they expected little else from him. And so Mathews, after moving hurriedly towards the off side to let two consecutive short balls whizz past his ribs, began to play the third delivery in a similar manner. Except that this time Wagner bowled a full length. The ball crashed into the inside of his front pad, shot between his legs and flattened middle stump. Mathews had not even played a shot, and was the first Sri Lankan batsman to not be caught in this Test.Chandimal had to shelve his cavalier approach against Wagner. He had got to 50 off 90 balls – scoring 19 off 26 this morning – but made only eight off his next 41 deliveries. Subdued into a defensive mind-set, he padded up to a ball from the left-arm spinner Santner that went on with the arm, and was adjudged lbw not offering a shot. After a partnership of 56, Mathews and Chandimal had fallen with the score on 165.Wagner now went around the wicket to aim at the ribs of the two left-handers – Kithuruwan Vithanage and Milinda Siriwardana. He pinned them to the crease with his length, and then bowled a fast full-toss at Siriwardana, who was hit on the back pad as he squared up in his crease. The umpire Nigel Llong gave him lbw but Siriwardana successfully reviewed the decision, replays surprisingly suggesting the ball would have missed off stump, perhaps because Wagner had delivered from extremely wide of the crease.Wagner was given the second new ball for the last delivery of his first spell, which comprised eight overs at speeds that did not ebb.Southee took two deliveries to strike with the new ball, swinging it back into Vithanage from over the wicket, hitting the left-hander’s pads. Vithanage had played an enterprising innings, a run-a-ball 38 full of shots.The slide was swift after lunch. Boult struck in the third and fifth over of the second session – drawing an edge from Rangana Herath and having Siriwardana caught at short cover, both batsmen not bothering with defence.Sri Lanka went down swinging, and were bowled out for 282. However, the fact that an inexperienced batting line-up had lasted 95.2 overs after playing 117.1 in the first innings will be some consolation for a team rebuilding from the retirements of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene.

Usman Khawaja believes his hamstrings are stronger than they have been for three years, after he spent a month on the sidelines recovering from a strain to his left hamstring. Khawaja suffered the injury in the second Test against New Zealand in Perth and is set to return for the Boxing Day Test against West Indies, after proving his fitness with a BBL hundred at the MCG on Sunday night.Khawaja batted through the Sydney Thunder innings and showed his remarkable form had not diminished despite missing Australia’s last two Tests. He has been working with staff at the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane since sustaining the injury and was able to bat in the nets for most of that time. On Monday, he said he had recovered well after his unbeaten 109 of the previous evening.”I’m stoked I got some batting time,” he said. “To score a hundred in a T20 game is not an easy thing to do, so I’m just very happy with how things are working out. But there’s still a lot of work to do so I’m trying to keep my head down. I feel really good, just normal, general soreness … I pushed myself pretty hard, in terms of my hammy rehab, in terms of my running, in terms of my conditioning work.”My hamstrings are definitely stronger than they have been in the last three years. The last testing I had to do on Friday was a hamstring strength test and my hamstrings came up stronger than they have been in the last three years. I did a lot of hard work in the last four weeks. The trainers up at the NCC pushed me pretty hard. That’s what I needed to do. That’s all I can control.”Khawaja has now scored centuries in his last three games – the Brisbane and Perth Tests against New Zealand, and the T20 match on Sunday. He appears a certain inclusion against West Indies for his first appearance in a Boxing Day Test, which will leave Australia’s selectors with the difficult decision of whether to drop Shaun Marsh after his 182 in the Hobart Test, or opener Joe Burns.Burns scored a century against New Zealand at the Gabba and while he made starts in all three Tests since then, he has not passed fifty since that innings. That means there is a strong chance that Khawaja will be asked to open with David Warner on Boxing Day. Khawaja said coach Darren Lehmann had wanted him to push himself to his limits in the BBL game to replicate as best as possible the wear and tear he would face in a Test.”I just needed to go out there and play as I would any other game,” he said. “I couldn’t go out there and try to nurse it or not go 100% because I know that’s not what Boof wants. I knew I’d done all the hard work so I was always going to go hard no matter what.”In Twenty20, you’re sprinting every ball. In Test match cricket, you’re not sprinting every ball so it’s a little bit different. Five-day cricket is a different type of fatigue. I’m really glad with the way I’ve pulled up after this game. It’s a good indicator of how I would pull up after a five-day game.”Australia’s squad gathers in Melbourne on Tuesday and will have their first training session on Wednesday ahead of the Test, which starts on Saturday. Some of Australia’s squad members have played BBL matches over the past week, while West Indies spent the weekend playing against an under-strength Victoria XI in a two-day match in Geelong.

England Under-19 fast bowlers Sam Curran and Saqib Mahmood took two and four wickets respectively to help dismiss West Indies Under-19 for 221 and complete a 61-run victory in Chittagong. Curran began the defence of 282 in splendid fashion, dismissing Tevin Imlach and no. 3 Shimron Hetmyer for ducks in the first over of the West Indies chase. The other opener Gidron Pope made 60 out of the team’s first 84 runs at a run a ball before he was dismissed in the 18th over. The only other innings of substance came from the no. 7 Keemo Paul, who made 65 off 58 deliveries. Mahmood ran through the lower order and West Indies were all out in 43.4 overs.England had relied on a collective performance to post 282 for 7 after winning the toss, their second successive imposing total of the tournament. Opener Dan Lawrence was impressive again, making 55, while Callum Taylor top scored with 59. Jack Burnham made 44 and George Bartlett 48, and Curran also contributed 39 off 36 balls at no. 6 before wrecking the start of the chase.Fiji Under-19 suffered another massive defeat in their second match of the World Cup, losing by seven wickets to Zimbabwe Under-19 in Chittagong, two days after a 299-run thrashing against England. This time Fiji batted first and were shot out for 81 in 27.4 overs, with only three batsmen making double-figure scores and no one getting past 20. Offspinner Wesley Madhevere began his tournament with figures of 5 for 24, while legspinner Blessing Mavuta claimed 3 for 13 in Zimbabwe’s victory.Zimbabwe made short work of the chase, getting to 84 in 18.5 overs but lost three wickets in doing so. They were 27 for 2 at one stage. However, opener Brendan Sly made an unbeaten 29, while Jeremy Ives scored 23 off 26 balls, to seal victory. Medium-pacer Josaia Baleicikoibia took 2 for 19 for Fiji.The Namibia Under-19 bowlers dismissed Scotland Under-19 for 159 in Cox’s Bazar after which their top-order batsmen polished off the chase in 26 overs with nine wickets in hand. After winning the toss, Scotland lost their opener Jack Waller to Fritz Coetzee off the first legal ball of the game and never really recovered. They slumped from 59 for 2 to 97 for 8, before their last two wickets propped them up to 159 before they were all out in 36.3 overs. Owais Shah’s 39 at No.3 was Scotland’s top score, while Michael van Lingen took 3 for Namibia.Unlike Scotland, Namibia had a strong start to their chase, with their openers adding 95 in 15.3 overs. Niko Davin fell for 52 off 37 balls, while SJ Loftie-Eaton was unbeaten on 67 when the winning runs were hit with 144 balls to spare. He had added 67 for the second wicket with his captain Zane Green, who was unbeaten on 39 off 42 balls.