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Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

The three-match one-day series followed a predictable script asSri Lanka wrapped up the second ODI and the series at the R PremadasaStadium in Colombo with a five-wicket win. The victory was fashioned by aruthless bowling performance, starting with Lasith Malinga’s incisiveopening burst, followed by Sanath Jayasuriya’s finishing touches,restricting Bangladesh to 137, a score few teams can realistically defend.Under overcast skies, the Bangladesh batting imploded for the second gamein succession. It was a good toss to win for Mahela Jayawardene as theseamers uitilised the damp pitch and overcast conditions to repeat theirdemolition of the top order. With their backs to the wall in terms of theseries, the start was hardly auspicious as the openers failed to lay thegroundwork, failing to adapt to the ball swinging in both directions andkicking off a good length.Malinga prised out both openers in quick succession, varying his length inboth dismissals. Shahriar Nafees’s patience ran out when he attempted acheeky glance down to third man off a good length delivery outside offstump, resulting in an edge which was taken comfortably by Jayawardene atsecond slip.Tamim Iqbal was subdued for 16 deliveries for his three and was dismissedwhile playing all around a Malinga yorker, beaten for pace. The strategyof promoting Mushfiqur Rahim up the order didn’t pay off as his stintlasted a mere four deliveries. A victim of another rude wake up call byMalinga, Rahim was caught off guard by one that kicked on him just shortof a good length and a big outside edge was snapped up acrobatically byKumar Sangakkara to his right.The second Powerplay produced just six runs, as the batsmen failed to getthe ball past the infield and the runs came at a crawl. The miserlyMaharoof gave no freebies in his opening spell – conceding just 11 runsoff eight overs – accounting for Tushar Imran.Aftab Ahmed and Mohammad Ashraful dropped anchor and added 61 afterBangladesh had tottered to 26 for 4 in the 15th over. Aftab’s knock of 47was one completely out of character given his propensity to attack fromthe word ‘go’. When Ashraful departed for 29, Aftab and Shakib Al Hasanseemed to get another partnership going, pushing the singles withregularity once the spinners came on.However, indiscretion on Shakib’s part brought Sri Lanka back in businessas he was bowled by Malinga Bandara while attempting a slog sweep. Aftabsquandered an opportunity to get a fifty when he pulled straight tomidwicket, giving Jayasuriya his second scalp.

By then, Bangladesh hardly looked like crossing 150 and the nature of thedismissals that followed was just a sad reflection of an innings which hadlittle entertainment value. A run-out, followed by desperate loftsstraight down fielders’ throats ended the innings in the 47th over.Jayasuriya reached a personal milestone when he wrapped up the tail,reaching 300 ODI wickets.Chasing a modest 138, Jayasuriya and Upul Tharanga were off in a rush,adding 43 for the first wicket and it was wayward fare from the Bangladeshseamers which contributed to the racy start. Syed Rasel and ShahadatHossain failed to land the ball on a good length roundabout the off stumpunlike their Sri Lankan counterparts and instead sprayed it wide and toofull.Fielders patrolling point and cover were given an early work-out asTharanga drove and cut with privilege and freedom. Shahadat wasn’t sparedin one over in which he conceded three consecutive boundaries offTharanga’s blade, all square of the wicket in the off side. However, hewas rewarded the minute he landed the ball on the right length – short onoff stump – forcing Tharanga on the backfoot and getting it to slantacross the left hander with a faint edge going through to Rahim.Jayasuriya meanwhile took on Rasel and lofted him for successiveboundaries, down to long-off and long-on respectively, and the targetseemed one mighty blow away. Rasel then had his moment, albeitcontroversially, when he beat Sangakkara’s bat with a full deliveryoutside off and the look on Sangakkara’s face suggested that he wasn’t toopleased.Bangladesh’s spirits rose again after a double strike sent back Jayasuriyaand Jayawardene. Bowling short and wide, left-arm spinner AbdurRazzak bowled to his field and got Jayasuriya to slash hard outside theoff stump straight to point. Agile catching at midwicket by Aftab sent back Jayawardene and for a change, the heat was on Sri Lanka.After a few quiet overs – Tillekaratne Dilshan was scoreless for 16 balls- Chamara Silva cut loose. He lashed two boundaries off medium pacerFarhad Reza, including a fierce slash over backward point and waltzed downthe track to Razzak. The sparse crowd in the high-capacity stadium turnedvocal as Sri Lanka strolled home with 113 balls to spare.

Scorecard
Offspinner Amit Jaggernauth and seamer Ravi Rampaul took seven wickets between them to send CCC crashing to 97 before Kieron Pollard scored 85 off 79 balls to help Trinidad take a 127-run first-innings lead in their Carib Beer Series match in Bridgetown.Trinidad’s openers, William Perkins and Lendl Simmons, put on 44 runs for the first wicket, but both were removed by Kevin McClean before tea. Pollard, who came in at No.4, was in an aggressive mood, bringing up his half-century off 48 balls. In the mean time, he added 117 runs for the third wicket with Darren Ganga, who made 47. Jason Bennett, the right-arm seamer, then dismissed both batsmen, before Denesh Ramdin slogged at the third-last ball of the day from Shirley Clarke, the CCC captain, to be bowled for 18.In the morning session, Rampaul took three wickets in a ten-over opening burst to leave CCC at 29 for 3. The introduction of spin hastened the end of CCC’s innings as Jaggernauth, who was included in West Indies’ Test squad for the coming series against Sri Lanka, took 4 for 35, including the wicket of their top scorer, Nekoli Parris, who made 27. Dave Mohammed, the left-arm spinner, complemented Jaggernauth by taking two wickets – he had Kurt Wilkinson caught at cover and induced a top-edged sweep from Bennett.
Scorecard
Guyana, aided by a four-wicket haul from offspinner Zaheer Mohammed, restricted Leeward Islands to 204 before they made their way to within 67 runs off taking the first-innings lead in St. Thomas.Lionel Baker, the Leewards seamer, took two wickets to have Guyana at 17 for 2 before Krishna Arjune, who made 35, and Travis Dowlin (26) resurrected the innings. After both batsmen failed to extend their scores, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Guyana’s batting mainstay, anchored the innings with a patient 36, and with Ramnaresh Sarwan (16*), ensured that there was no further damage.Put in, Leewards lost Austin Richards and Runako Morton before a run was scored, both of whom were removed by Esuan Crandon. Shane Jeffers and Tonito Willett, who scored 37 and 34 respectively, steadied the innings, before they were dismissed by Brandon Bess. The Leewards’ middle order, comprising Orlando Peters, Steve Liburd, and Jahmar Hamilton, could not build on their starts, all of them falling to Mohammed, edging to Sarwan in the slips. Lionel Baker scored a quick 26 to stretch Leewards’ score, before Mohammed returned to finish off the innings by getting rid of Bront de Freitas.
Scorecard
Windward Islands’ bowlers combined well to keep Jamaicia down to 232, but they conceded the momentum when they lost Devon Smith and debutant Raymond Casimir to the fiery Daren Powell with only a run on the board just before the close of play in St Elizabeth.Windwards’ decision to field reaped immediate reward when three early wickets by Nelon Pascal had Jamaica on the back foot at 95 for 3. Jamaica slipped further when Chris Gayle was caught behind off Deighton Butler for 55. Shane Shillingford, the offspinner, then ran through the middle order, taking three wickets including the prized scalp of Marlon Samuels for 28, before returning to dismiss Nikita Miller, who also made 28. The tail was taken care off by Butler, who removed Carlton Baugh for 25 and had Jemore Taylor caught behind for a duck to finish with figures of 3 for 35.

Scorecard
Subashis Roy grabbed a four-wicket haul to power Bangladesh Under-19s to a series-clinching win against West Indies Under-19s.West Indies were in pursuit of 233 but Roy never allowed their chase to get underway. Roy struck in his first over, removing Kieran Powell before knocking out the other opener Horace Miller and Adrian Barath in quick succession to leave West Indies struggling at 34 for 3.Suhrawadi Shuvo, the left-arm spinner, gave able support to Roy and ended up with a three-wicket haul. Sharmarh Brooks and Darren Bravo revived the innings with an 83-run partnership for the fourth wicket but Shuvo trapped Bravo to terminate it. And when Brooks fell soon after, with West Indies at 140 for 6, the chase was all but over.Earlier, an 87-run partnership between Nadimuddin (49) and Saikat Ali (49) helped Bangladesh recover from 25 for 3 before Rony Talukder (59) propelled them to finish at a healthy 232.

Uttar Pradesh 292 for 7 (Srivastava 105, Shukla 80*, Sangwan 3-73, Narwal 3-66) v Delhi
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Tanmay Srivastava, who cut short his under-19 tour of South Africa toplay the Ranji final, chose the occasion to script his maidenfirst-class hundred and pushed Uttar Pradesh to 292 for 7 by close ofplay on the opening day at the Wankhede Stadium. Ravikant Shukla, dropped when on 13, made an unbeaten 80but Delhi clawed back into the game with late wickets to justify theirdecision to bowl first and, with the wicket promising to be at its best forbatting over the next two days, will reckon they have a slightedge.As the curator promised, the track was firm and offered some movementand good carry in the initial hour, andthere were a few plays and misses by the batsmen.Tanmay announced his refreshingly positive intent with a clippedfirst-ball boundary off his legs, followed by a steer to third man,before he settled down to play a fluent innings. He took a full strideforward at every opportunity and played as close to the body aspossible. Though beaten on a few occasions like the others, he didn’tpush his bat away from the body. Instead, he was quick to go on the attack, slashing to the cover boundary each time the bowlers gavewidth, and cutting when they dragged back the length. The techniquewas quite simple: he stood still at the crease, had a slightforward trigger movement but took care never to press that foot toomuch across his stumps.Rohit Srivastava, his fellow opener, and Suresh Raina failedto do that and were trapped in front. Rohit was a touch unlucky, as the ballappeared to be sliding down leg side but the technique did exposehim to the lbw threat. Mohammad Kaif was edgy throughout his shortstay before he cut the legspinner Chetanya Nanda’s first delivery toslip for Aakash Chopra to hold a sharp catch.Tanmay found an able ally in Shukla and the two led the recovery act witha 101-run partnership. Shulka was to get a slice of luck early in hisinnings. Nanda had placed his midwicket fielder slightly deeper thannormal and lured Shukla to play the slog-sweep but Narwal failed tohold on. Shukla settled down after that, showing good judgmentoutside off stump and grew in confidence as his innings progressed. Heplayed his cuts and pulls whenever offered the opportunity.As the partnership blossomed, Gautam Gambhir, the Delhi captain, might have worried over hisdecision at the toss but Tanmay’s wicket opened the door for Delhi tofight back. He had just pulled Nanda for six to bring up his century butfell a ball later, steering Sangwan to third slip. Piyush Chawlafollowed, slashing a wide one from Narwal to gully, Amir Khan fell toa diving catch by Chopra at first slip and Praveen Kumar pulledto deep midwicket.Delhi’s desperation had begun to pay off but their bowlers could havebeen more disciplined earlier in the day. Gambhir, who kept at leasttwo slips through most of the day, was seen on occasiongesticulating to the bowlers to hit the channel outside off stump.Sangwan found that line more often than the others but he toowas guilty of bowling a touch short.Amit Bhandari failed to find his outswinger with the new ball and struggledto hit the right line when he went round the stumps later, while Narwal offered the batsman width throughout the day. When the bowlershit the right areas, they had the batsmenin trouble. Delhi will feel confident of prising out the remainingthree wickets early on Thursday and then expect their strong top order todo the job with the bat.

Michael Hussey wants Australia to ignore Friday’s disturbing hit-and-miss performance and recall the strong batting memories from last week at the SCG for the first final. Hussey was one of the many failures as Australia fell from 0 for 107 to 208 all out against Sri Lanka in Melbourne, but he does not believe the display will affect the home team when it faces India in the most crucial one-day match of the season so far.As a spiteful summer draws to a close, Hussey has urged his team to shut out the various distractions, which have ranged from on- and off-field verbals to the shadow of the Indian Premier League, as they attempt to win the last Australian tri-series. “I’d prefer to bury everything and focus on final,” he said. “Both teams and the Australian and Indian public have had enough of the controversy.”Hussey encouraged his team-mates to take the emotion out of the encounter to achieve their peak performance. “It’s important we don’t let the distractions play any part on our minds,” he said. “If we play on emotions sometimes those distractions can have a detrimental part on your performance. If we take emotion out of it, I think we can play our best and go 1-0 up in the series.”A key ingredient to any Australian success is a well-rounded batting performance, which is something that has been missing for much of the series – they have played eight games and only twice passed 250. Despite the stuttering, Hussey expects the more batsman-friendly surface at the SCG to help the side forget the low of Friday night.”There have been difficult conditions in Melbourne during the year and all teams have struggled,” he said. “We don’t want to look too much into [the MCG performance]. We’re looking to our last performance in Sydney, when all the batsmen played particularly well.”Ricky Ponting broke free from his run drought with 124 in that game and all of the top six made useful contributions in the total of 7 for 317, which led to an 18-run victory. “We know we’re playing well,” Hussey said, “and we know we can put on a good performance.”

Chris Gayle and Clive Lloyd keep referring to the West Indies team under their charge in South Africa as young. Dr Donald Peters, the chief executive officer of the West Indies Cricket Board, notes that it is presently the second youngest in international cricket.They are all strictly correct. Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Pedro Collins and Rawl Lewis are the only three of the 15 here over 30. Six are under 25.Yet it is a chronological illusion. The youthful average age is in direct contrast to the overall international experience.Chanderpaul, Daren Ganga, Gayle, Marlon Samuels, Jerome Taylor and the injured, absent Ramnaresh Sarwan all first appeared for the West Indies as teenagers. Dwayne Bravo and Denesh Ramdin made their debuts at 20, Fidel Edwards and Devon Smith at 21.They are now relatively old hands at the game. Only Ramdin, Darren Sammy, Runako Morton and the newcomer, Brenton Parchment, have been less than three years in Test cricket. Bravo is a typical example of the experience gathered in the several short careers. Still only 24, he has already toured Australia, England, India, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and Zimbabwe and played in one World Cup and two Champions Trophy tournaments. Like so many others, he was the outstanding individual in his first series, in England in 2004.Sarwan’s unbeaten 81 in his debut Test innings against a Pakistan side, which included Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Saqlain Mushtaq, Mushtaq Ahmed, Abdul Razzaq, prompted the watching Ted Dexter, the England captain of an earlier generation, to predict an eventual Test average of over 50.Samuels was another who made an immediate mark. Steve Waugh was so impressed with his class when he came in as a replacement in Australia seven years ago, aged 19, he presented him with his favourite red handkerchief.Yet, with the prominent exception of Chanderpaul, every young West Indian has regressed. Sarwan’s batting average has slipped from the mid-40s to 38.76. Only Chanderpaul (46.63), Gayle (38.28) and Bravo (34.24) of those in South Africa are above 30.The same holds true of the bowlers, of whom Collins’ 34.63 is the lowest.The task of the new coach, John Dyson, over the coming six months is clear. And so should the message to his players. Dyson himself has recognised it. “The team has tremendous potential and I don’t think they are achieving it,” he told the BBC last month. It is a self-evident truth.”They’re quite capable of moving up the ICC tables (where they now stand eighth out of nine) and, from my point of view, it’s important they have the ability to do that, so it’s an area I can work on.”It is a task that has proved beyond the long line of those who have preceded him. Each one has departed, either of their own frustrated accord or by the pink slip from the WICB, while most of the players have remained.Andy Roberts, himself one of the previous coaches and now selector, stated after the selection for this tour that the “stakeholders”, as he termed them, remained because genuine contenders have not emerged from the sub-standard first-class tournament in the Caribbean.In other words, the “stakeholders” have become complacent, knowing their places are virtually secure how ever much they underachieve.It is a state of affairs that has run its course.

The selectors must be guided over the coming three months, for the subsequent home series against Sri Lanka and Australia, by performances in the Tests and ODIs against South Africa and in the simultaneous Carib Beer Series in the Caribbean.Batsmen whose averages are stuck in the mid-20s and bowlers who have made little progress after several years of Test cricket must know that their places will go to those back home who verify their claims with runs and wickets at regional level.And the WICB can back up its recent stated intention to smother the team with love by providing them with as much technical support as other Test teams now enjoy as a matter of course through bowling and fielding coaches (especially fielding) and qualified physical trainers. Otherwise, it will be the same old, same old.

Cecil Abrahams, who played with Basil D’Oliveira’s South African non-racial team against Kenya in the 1950s, has died in Manchester aged 75.He was a fast-bowling allrounder who played club cricket for Trafalgar in Cape Town and Western Province under the auspices of the South African Cricket Board of Control (SACBOC).Abrahams left South Africa to play in the Lancashire Leagues, where he played with much success for Milnrow, Radcliffe and Oldham.Gerald Majola, CEO of Cricket South Africa, said: “On behalf of Cricket South Africa, I would like to extend our condolences to the family and friends of Cecil Abrahams.”He was an outstanding all-round sportsman, and cricket is most grateful that he chose our game as his main sport. Apartheid denied him the chance to reach his full potential as a South African international cricketer, yet he has left a mark that history will record for posterity.”

South African players are unlikely to participate in the Indian Premier League tillApril 25th, as they will be involved in the Standard Bank Pro20 matches in SouthAfrica. The franchises were informed of the development by the IPL governing councilin a meeting held in Mumbai, where a host of administrative issues surrounding the league were discussed.Ten South African players have been signed on by the eight IPL franchises, and a few of them, depending on how their domestic teams fare in the Pro20, might join their IPL teams after the tournament ends on 25th.However, a franchise representative was confident the players would beavailable for the full duration. “The decision is not final as yet. We are in the process of talking to the players, their teams and the board and we will work something out.”In among other things that were discussed in the meeting, each franchise has been allotted a liason officer from a South African agency, which was involved with the ICC World Twenty20 held in South Africa, who will travel with the teams and oversee the security preparations.The meeting saw a host of experts from the consulting firm IMG counselling the franchises on the issues ranging from security, accredition, ticketing, and movement of officials across grounds, and entertainment guidelines. “Not many of us [franchises] have prior experience in organising games and this meeting was very helpful in that regard,” a franchise representative said.

Seamer Alfonso Thomas and allrounder Pierre de Bruyn have been released from their contracts with the Titans and both will represent the Dolphins for the rest of the season.The pair were acquired by the Dolphins to cover for the loss of former South African players Lance Klusener and Dale Benkenstein to the Indian Cricket League (ICL). Players linked with the ICL have been banned from domestic cricket by Cricket South Africa.”This will definitely strengthen the Dolphins ahead of the MTN Domestic Championship and the Pro20 Series,” Cassim Docrat, the Dolphins chief executive, told Supercricket.Docrat said that Thomas had signed for the next season as well. In six games this season, Thomas has scored 110 runs and taken 11 wickets while de Bruyn has scored 112 runs in four games.

India’s cricket officials refused to reschedule the one-day series against the West Indies despite crowd trouble in all the three matches played so far.”There is no threat to the series, it will be completed as scheduled,” said Karunakaran Nair, the secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).While the first two matches in Jamshedpur and Nagpur were briefly interrupted by missile-throwing fans, Tuesday’s game in Rajkot was forced to be abandoned after West Indian fielders were hit by plastic water bottles.Two of the remaining four matches will be played in Ahmedabad and Baroda, which like Rajkot are situated in the sensitive western state of Gujarat where thousands were killed in communal violence earlier this year.BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya said he had spoken to state administration officials to ensure the untoward incidents of the first three matches were not repeated.”We are happy the Gujarat government has agreed to our suggestions to increase security in Ahmedabad and Baroda,” Dalmiya said.”We have also issued necessary instructions to the staging associations to install close-circuit cameras as strategic points in the stadiums, so that mischief-mongers can be identified.”Ahmedabad will host a day-night match on Friday, followed by day games in Baroda (November 18), Jodhpur (Nov 21) and Vijayawada (Nov 24).The West Indies lead the series 2-1 after winning the first two matches. The third at Rajkot was awarded to India by a margin of 81 runs after the home side was ahead on run-rate when the match was abandoned.Nair said the problem was not lack of security, but hooliganism by a small section of spectators.”We can control 99 per cent of the crowd. But if the remaining one per cent decides to create nuisance, we are rendered helpless,” he said.”We can only appeal to the sporting public of India who are great fans of cricket to desist from such behaviour as it is bringing a bad name to the country.”The International Cricket Council (ICC), worried at the incidents in India, said it was looking at expanding its powers to remove international status from unruly venues.ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed said while it did not at present have the authority to remove the international status of a venue, its Safety and Security Committee would consider it “imminently”.”We have asked this committee to consider appropriate penalties for venues which consistently fail to meet their obligations in meeting minimum standards of security,” Speed said in a statement.”This is likely to include the ultimate sanction of withdrawing international status from a ground, combined with a heavy financial penalty.”