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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.

Shane Warne feels like he’s had “50 Vodka and Red Bulls” whenever he’s walked on to the field during the series, but it won’t stop him from waving goodbye at the next Test at Sydney. The first of Warne’s two tribute laps ended with him being chaired briefly by Matthew Hayden and Andrew Symonds before he stepped down to walk off with his fellow retiree Glenn McGrath.Warne showed his full repertoire to his home crowd for the last time in a Man-of-the-Match performance that was boosted by his unbeaten 40 in the first session. Two wickets as England fell to an innings loss pushed his match tally to seven and the team is now in sight of a 5-0 result.The first time Warne came to the ground was when Allan Border and Jeff Thomson failed by four runs to beat England in 1982-83. Money was tight in the Warne family back then, so they caught the train and entry was free. In the future those who have been lucky enough to be at the MCG at any time during Warne’s career will remember his performances as fondly as Border and Thomson’s brave steps.”I’m jumping out of my skin at the moment, I feel like I’ve had 50 Vodka and Red Bulls every time I go out on the field,” Warne said. “I suppose that’s why I’m trying all my tricks. I feel very happy and young and fresh.”Warne said there were tears in the dressing room when Andrew Symonds earned his first Test century, but he felt only excitement at the victory when he stepped off his “backyard”. “I’m not sad,” he said. “I’m leaving when I’m on top and feel I’m bowling as good as at any stage during my career.”I couldn’t ask for this to go much better. I got my 700th wicket, runs down the order, some catches.”The performance of Warne left Ponting light-heartedly reconsidering his decision not to challenge him when he originally brought up the exit plan. “I didn’t even think about talking Warney out of retirement,” he said, “but I might have to think about it after today.”

Ian Bell has called on the England team to support Andrew Flintoff during the Ashes series so that his workload doesn’t become too much. Flintoff was handed the captaincy for the tour of Australia after being narrowly favoured ahead of Andrew Strauss, but concerns linger that he has a lot on his plate as England aim to defend the Ashes.But Bell believes that Flintoff will lead from the front and take the challenges in his stride, although does concede that he can’t do it all on his own.”Even without his captaincy, Freddie is a leader in whatever he does, whether it be batting, bowling or fielding,” he told the Press Association. “It will be great to have him back on the park and great to have him lead us out there [in Australia].”But we are going to have to support him because it is a hell of a long winter for all of us especially with Freddie batting, bowling, fielding and captaining the side against the number one team in the world in Australia.”It is going to be a long winter for him so we all need to be with him and making sure he is not doing too much. That is probably a danger. The last thing you want is for Freddie to be burnt out. It’s a good thing in a way we’ve still got people there like Straussy [Andrew Strauss] and Tresco [Marcus Trescothick] around. These guys can talk to him and make sure he doesn’t do too much.When Flintoff led England in the Test series against Sri Lanka he bowled 51 overs in the second innings of the Lord’s Test. Those in favour of having Strauss as captain said he would have been able to manage Flintoff’s workload better than the man himself.”With Freddie being captain, he’ll want to do things from the front and makes sure everything is done properly and sometimes he does too much himself,” Bell said. “He needs to have that support from everyone in the team to say: ‘Freddie, you just look after yourself a bit more rather than doing too much’.”It’s great for us to have Freddie but we need to be aware he is a key player for us for the whole winter and we need him all the way through.”

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.

Pakistan’s cricketers made a big mistake on Sunday at The Oval in London. Having refused to take the field immediately after tea in the aftermath of umpire Darrell Hair’s decision that the ball had been illegally tampered with by the tourists, Inzamam-ul-Haq and his men should have abandoned the fourth and final Test against England then and there.But by belatedly emerging from the dressing-room some 45 minutes later, at a time when Hair and Billy Doctrove had already ruled that England were the winners by virtue of their opponents’ forfeiture, they had significantly weakened their own principled position, ultimately succumbing to pressure from within or without that playing a cricket match, and more than likely going on to win it on the final day, was more important than dignity and integrity.If the Pakistanis were really serious with all of the post-match comments about their country’s honour being at stake, they should have boarded the team coach back to their hotel and left the officials to wonder what to do next. Being vilified in the British press or roundly booed by thousand of blind loyalists is a very small price to pay for making an emphatic statement that enough is well and truly enough.What is it about us former colonials that we feel compelled to measure ourselves by our one-time masters’ yardstick of what constitutes civility and fair play? Giving up a Test match is as legitimate a protest as any other, especially if the degree of the perceived offence goes beyond issues of umpiring incompetence, or even bias. Those strident defenders of Victorian values, who will tut-tut and mutter disapprovingly about such behaviour being just not cricket, need to come to terms with the reality that this is only a game, and if it means being disrespected and insulted – as the Pakistanis claim – then it isn’t a game worth playing.It is of course not unprecedented for a team to threaten to abandon a Test. The all-powerful West Indies side came extremely close to walking out on the second match of the turbulent 1979-80 series in New Zealand, so incensed were they at what are generally accepted to be a litany of blatantly biased umpiring decisions against them (I say that on the basis of not just having read about that tour, but listening to the comments of those who saw it “live” or were actually involved during the West Indies trip there earlier this year).Unlike Pakistan, Clive Lloyd’s team eventually took the field after a similarly prolonged tea interval before it was too late. Everything continued as before: the bad decisions, the West Indian complaints, the New Zealand rebuttals about poor sportsmanship. The chance to make an attention-getting statement had been lost.Would it have made any significant difference to the future course of the game if the West Indians had walked out in the middle of the match more than 26 years ago? More than likely not, just as you would usually say that this latest raging controversy will probably run its swift course before it’s back to regular programming, courtesy of some creative negotiating, all for the sake of ensuring that the lucrative global business of cricket is not significantly interrupted.But the conciliatory mood might just be changing, especially as this latest issue comes in the midst of allegations of terrorist plots and a deepening mistrust between two distinct cultures. Will the players rally behind Inzamam and refuse to play in the scheduled limited-over series against England if he is slapped with a ban at Friday’s hearing for his team’s ball-tampering and then bringing the game into disrepute?There seems to be no easy way out this time, especially as the umpires have clearly drawn the line in the sand by first penalising Pakistan on the field and then apparently standing by the decision that the match was over as far as they were concerned when the visitors chose to stay in the dressing-room immediately after tea.On the evidence of those two issues alone, Inzamam is guilty, and if the International Cricket Council is consistent in applying its Code of Conduct, then some sort of ban is inevitable.What this matter has also highlighted is the continued polarisation of the traditional cricket establishment and the increasingly assertive and aggressive nations of the Indian subcontinent, never mind the best public relations efforts of the ICC.While Hair is being mocked and ridiculed in the streets of Karachi and Lahore, across in his native Australia, he is being hailed in the media as forthright and courageous. Not for the first time, there is no definitive border between right and wrong, especially as that line is so often blurred by the perceptions of different people conditioned by the mores and standards of very different societies.In the modern era of sport, of course, the common denominator is not fair play, but money, and while Pakistan will complain long and often about being insulted and humiliated yet again, they will also be made aware of the severe financial consequences of failing to fulfill their contractual obligations should the heavy hand of cricketing law come down on Inzamam in two days’ time.What price, if any, will they determine is too high to pay in defence of their honour and dignity?

Two Zimbabwe players, Vusi Sibanda and Waddington Mwayenga, and the national team manager, Mohammed Meman, who were arrested on Saturday by the police on charges of violating foreign exchange regulations have been released.The local Herald newspaper reported that “sources within Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) said they had been informed that the police were also interested in questioning at least six more players over their offshore foreign currency accounts and transactions.” It did not specify who those sources were. The newspaper also said the arrests followed investigations by Zimbabwe’s central bank into the cricket league’s financial affairs.Meman, speaking via telephone to AFP, said that the matter was close to being resolved.”We are in the process of being released right now. I don’t foresee any hicups and there are no restrictions on us,” he said. “I believe the instruction to let us go came from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. We know who caused this mischief, but he has failed except to give anxiety for our families.”Clive Field, the players’ representative, said that the news had come out of the blue. “It came as a shock to all of us,” he told Cricinfo. “We are not sure why those players were picked up. We are trying to get more information as we are concerned for the players.”

Bangladeshis 309 for 7 dec (Rahim 115*, Rafique 54) drew with Northamptonshire 230 for 6 dec (Shafayat 76, Afzaal 47*, Hossain 4-113)
ScorecardMushfiqur Rahim gave the Bangladeshis a much-needed boost ahead of the first Test, with an unbeaten century on the third and final day of their rain-affected match against Northamptonshire. The match petered out into a predictable draw, but Rahim’s innings enlivened proceedings and gave Dav Whatmore, Bangladesh’s coach, some unexpected selection dilemmas.Rahim, who is only 16, was originally picked on the tour as understudy to Khaled Masud, the established wicketkeeper, but he has shown the best form of all the batsmen in the last two warm-up matches. Following his gutsy 63 against Sussex he struck 15 fours and a six here, adding 91 with Masud and 87 with Mohammad Rafique, who made a quickfire 54 from 52 balls.Rahim has put his name in the frame for Lord’s as a specialist batsman, after the Bangladesh top order suffered another slump. The Northants attack did not feature any first-team players, but still caused plenty of problems. Charl Pietersen disposed of Javed Omar (6 for 1), while Matthew Friedlander removed Mohammad Ashraful, Rajin Saleh and Mashud as the Bangladeshis slumped to 105 for 5.Northants had earlier taken their first-innings total from 149 for 5 to 230 for 6. Usman Afzaal made a run-a-ball 47 and Andrew White struck an unbeaten 30. Anwar Hossain Monir picked up his fourth wicket, but conceded nearly six an over throughout his 20 overs. He is unlikely to feature at Lord’s and, although Rahim’s innings is a boost for the Bangladeshis, the XI who take the field on Thursday know that that will be the true test.

Close South Africa 369 for 2 (Smith 200, Kirsten 113*)
scorecardGraeme Smith converted his maiden Test century to a superb 200, and Gary Kirsten became the first man to score centuries against all nine Test-playing opponents, as South Africa christened Buffalo Park, the 85th and newest Test venue, with a feast of runs. The pair added 272 for the second wicket, as Bangladesh, who won the toss and chose to field, suffered a long and fruitless day in the sun.Kirsten had a point to prove after his omission from South Africa’s one-day side, and after making a rare appearance at No. 3, he peppered the arc between point and long-off with exquisitely timed drives. He quickly celebrated his return to international cricket with a 58-ball half-century, and took no time to settle into a rhythm, opening his account with three boundaries in an over off Tapash Baisya – one of which was a slightly fortuitous under-edged cut to fine leg.At the other end, Kirsten’s doppelganger Smith was in equally commanding form. Both men are left-handed, with a tendency to drive away from the body, and such was the frequency with which the ball clattered over the ropes at extra-cover, that it was hard to distinguish the two. Smith, though, was the only man to give a chance, when on 111, he edged Alok Kapali between keeper and slip for four. On reaching three figures, he looked slightly sheepish to have fulfilled a lifelong ambition in such hollow circumstances, but there was no disguising his glee when he posted his double century. Sure enough, the surfeit of emotion did for him, and within two balls he had lofted Sanwar Hossain to mid-on (359 for 2).The only other scalp fell in the morning session – Herschelle Gibbs, who had looked in sumptuous form until he who cut loosely at a wide delivery from Baisya and scooped the ball to Tushar Imran at extra cover (87 for 1). After a measured start, with a mere 20 runs coming from the first seven overs, he had launched Baisya over midwicket for six, before driving him emphatically down the ground for four, and though he dutifully shouldered arms to much that came his way, when he chose to play a shot, it was never with anything but the very middle of the bat.Bangladesh’s bowlers were spirited as ever, but lacked the necessary penetration. Baisya and Talha Jubair bowled with optimistic hostility, and beat the edge on occasions, and Mohammad Rafique found some handy drift with his staccato round-arm spin. By the end of the day, however, they had been reduced to a rabble. Yet another dispiriting trouncing is only a matter of time.South Africa 1 Herschelle Gibbs, 2 Graeme Smith, 3 Gary Kirsten, 4 Jacques Kallis, 5 Ashwell Prince, 6 Martin van Jaarsveld, 7 Mark Boucher (capt & wk), 8 Claude Henderson, 9 David Terbrugge, 10 Makhaya Ntini, 11 Nantie Hayward.Bangladesh 1 Al-Sahariar Rokon, 2 Javed Omar, 3 Habibul Bashar, 4 Sanwar Hossain, 5 Tushar Imran, 6 Alok Kapali, 7 Khaled Mashud (capt & wk), 8 Mohammad Rafique, 9 Tapash Baisya, 10 Talha Jubair, 11 Manjural Islam.

Even by Shane Warne’s soap-operatic standards, this past month has been turbulent in the extreme. Another sordid tabloid exposé led directly to the break-up of his ten-year marriage, surely the worst-possible preparation for the intensity and emotions of an Ashes series. And yet, for all his off-pitch problems, Warne was adamant that he could put the bad thoughts to one side and raise his game to another level for the challenges ahead.”I’m pretty keen and anxious to get into the Tests,” Warne told a press conference at the Australian team hotel in South-West London. “Obviously this has been a difficult period of my life, but I’ve just got to deal with it and get on. I’ve been having my good days and bad days, and some days it can be hard to move on, but there’s really nothing more I can do. I just hope to enjoy the series and make it one of my best ever.”Warne and controversy go together like Lord’s and Australian Test victories, but now, in the twilight of his career and with nothing left to hide either on or off the pitch, he was in particularly candid mood. “I couldn’t give a rat’s **** what people think of me or say,” he said. “Everyone’s had an opinion, and I’ve loaded the bullets on a few occasions, but unfortunately we live in a society that’s pretty judgmental about what you do in your life.”That is as true for Warne’s cricket as it has been for his private life, but his attitude to both is phlegmatic. “My bowling is how it is,” he shrugged. “It’s different from how it was when I first started, different from what it was five years into my career, and different again from four years ago.”In the old days we used to bat first every time and I’d get to bowl into the fifth-day footmarks. These days there aren’t so many five-day Tests, so there’s not as much spin on offer. Plus we often bowl first these days, so I need other ways to get wickets on first-day pitches. That’s where I think I’ve improved, I’ve learned to adapt a bit better, and seeing as I’ve just had one of my best years ever, I think I’m going okay.”Warne, however, wasn’t deluding himself as to the ravages of time, and has had operations on his right shoulder, spinning finger and left knee as testament to his 15 years at the top. “Physically, it would be impossible for me to still be at my absolute peak,” he admitted. “There aren’t many days when something isn’t hurting, but I feel as fresh as a nearly-36-year-old can feel. When you get to this age it’s all about management, you can’t go to the nets and bowl hour after hour after hour – you have to save as much as you can for the games.”But after every game I’ve played, someone has either said: ‘he’s not as good as he was’ or ‘he’s getting better with age’. That opinion changes no matter what, so all you can go on is results, and in the last year as successful as at any stage. Whether I’m a better bowler or not, who knows? I guess you’d have to ask the batsmen that, not the people watching.”With three Ashes tours and six consecutive series wins to his name, Warne accepted that he would not be seen again in a baggy green in England. “I’m not going to be around in four years’ time,” he said. “It’s sad in a way, but it’s also very enjoyable because for the first time in eight series, I honestly believe England have got a chance.”They’ve got two matchwinners in [Andrew] Flintoff and [Steve] Harmison and, if Kevin Pietersen takes to Test cricket like he has done in one-dayers, then he could be phenomenal. It’s a brave decision and good one from the England selectors, because he’s the most dangerous player in England.”But overall, Warne was in a reflective mood, and accepted that this series would prove to be one of his greatest challenges, for more than just the cricketing reasons. “We’ve got five Tests in eight weeks and human nature is bound to take over for periods,” he admitted. “Looking back over the years it’s generally been the case that the tougher the situation the better I respond.”But nothing like this has ever happened in my life before, and I have to deal with as best I can. It’s not the way I wanted it to be, but I’ve just got to concentrate on my cricket and be there for the guys, because at the end of the day, that’s my job and, much as I see it as a hobby and a passion and a love, I have to turn up no matter what.”

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.”