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Sri Lanka’s top three were able to spend much-needed time in the middle on the third day of their tour match against the South African Invitation XI

Firdose Moonda at Willowmoore Park11-Dec-2011
ScorecardTharanga Paranavitana prepared for the Test series with a hundred•AFPSri Lanka’s top three were able to spend much-needed time in the middle on the third day of their tour match against the South African Invitational XI. Tharanga Paranavitana was dropped twice on his way to a century before retiring, Tillakaratne Dilshan scored an aggressive, almost run-a-ball 74 while Mahela Jayawardene battled for his 26.Kumar Sangakkara was moved down the order after he split the webbing between fingers on his right hand while fielding on Saturday. He did not bat but is expected to recover in the next day or two and team manager Anura Tennekoon said the injury was “not serious.”The home attack had less success than Sri Lanka’s did the previous day, as they sent down a selection of poor deliveries which were pounced on by a determined opening pair. Dilshan was typically forceful from the start, when he was off the mark with a back-foot drive through the covers, until the end when he pulled a short ball into the hands of David Wiese at fine leg.He acted as a perfect foil for Paranavitana, who was more circumspect in his approach upfront but should have been out on 20 when Dean Elgar fluffed a catch at second slip. The chance came off the bowling of Hardus Viljoen during a torrid first spell which cost 56 runs in seven overs. Viljoen is no stranger to Willowmoore Park, having played his amateur cricket for Easterns alongside Marchant de Lange who is in South Africa’s Test squad, but like the Sri Lankans the day before he did not adjust his lengths well enough against an international line-up.Dilshan raced to a half-century before lunch and looked well placed to keep going but the bowlers emerged from the interval with an improved effort. Wiese and Paul Harris kept runs to a minimum and Dilshan was frustrated enough by the third over after the resumption to play a loose shot.Paranavitana took over from where Dilshan left off and showed greater intent as his innings went on while Jayawardene played himself in. Jayawardene scratched around against a more disciplined attack but showed moments of good touch such as the six he scored off Harris, hitting the left-arm spinner back over his head. On the whole, though, the former captain did not look comfortable and was caught by Rille Rossouw at square leg from a pull shot.Paranavitana would have departed soon afterwards but was given a second life when he was dropped on 88 by the usually safe Farhaan Berhardien at point. He went on to bring up his century with a flick on the leg side and retired immediately afterwards, allowing Angelo Mathews to join Thilan Samraweera to get time in the middle.However, the partnership faced just 35 balls with neither batsman appearing to have familiarised themselves with conditions before the weather intervened again. Mathews was dropped at first slip by Harris when he edged Pumelela Matskihwe, who gave a respectable account of himself, then bad light intervened 20 minutes before tea. The players returned for four minutes and six balls before conditions became too gloomy leaving Sri Lanka fairly satisfied with the second day of their warm-up outing.The day had started in promising fashion when the Sri Lankan bowlers needed just 36 minutes to end the Invitation XI’s first innings. Dihara Fernando managed a straighter line than he had on the first day and was rewarded with two wickets as he bowled both Farhaan Berhardien (52) and Wiese (12). Sandwiched between those dismissals was the wicket of Viljoen, who was trapped lbw by Rangana Herath. Harris was the last man out, attempting a cut off Ajantha Mendis and mistiming it to backward point.

Dinesh Karthik, the lone centurion for Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy final, has blamed the Chepauk pitch for spoiling his team’s chances of winning the title

Nagraj Gollapudi24-Jan-2012Dinesh Karthik, the lone centurion for Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy final, has blamed the Chepauk pitch for spoiling his team’s chances of winning the title. The pitch became the focal point of the debate after Rajasthan amassed 621 runs across the first three days, taking advantage of a surface that was devoid of any bounce or pace. Though the game was drawn, Rajasthan took the title on first-innings points.The Rajasthan opening pair of Vineet Saxena and Aakash Chopra remained unconquered on a tedious first day when only 221 runs were scored.”To some extent, yes,” Karthik said, when asked if he would blame the pitch for Tamil Nadu finishing as runners-up. “Because after playing eight quality games you come up for the final only to realise it is going to be so toss-based. Any game for that matter should not be toss-based. There should be a pitch for both batsmen and bowlers. That is the key to sport, a contest.” Karthik’s previous century in a Ranji final came when Tamil Nadu played Mumbai at the same venue in the 2003-04 season.Incidentally the pitch for the final was the same surface Tamil Nadu had played Madhya Pradesh (group game) and Maharashtra (quarter-finals). In both those games, Tamil Nadu managed to bowl out the opposition at least once, but in the final they were made to toil fruitlessly. The fears of a weary pitch were realised completely: if the lack of pace on the dry pitch kept the fast bowlers parched, the spinners were hurt by the lack of bounce.Describing the pitch, Karthik said it was initially slow to start on day one and the cracks started getting wider over the subsequent days. “It is a little annoying to bat on (after day 3) you cannot play freely. If you are a positive player, there are not many shots you can play because you are not going to get value for your shots. That is why the run rate remained consistent at 2 to 2.2 types.”On the penultimate day, the pitch had become extremely slow. Still, Karthik’s century was the best innings in terms of strokeplay. It did not come easy, Karthik stressed. “It was far more difficult to bat than on what it was at the start of the match. The wicket was slow throughout the game but it became slower from the third day and the odd ball was keeping low and the cracks were opening.”Karthik failed to understand why such an important match could not be hosted on a better pitch, which would have retained the balance between bat and ball. He even cited the examples of venues like Mumbai and Baroda being fit to host the domestic season’s most important match. “I am disappointed at the fact that we cannot play on a wicket like a Wankhede or Baroda (Moti Bagh) wickets which are conducive to both batting and bowling. The scoreline would have been much more different.”However, Karthik credited the Rajasthan bowlers for maintaining accurate lines and the batsmen for their admirable patience. Tamil Nadu suffered a setback as soon as they started their innings after the new ball pair of Rituraj Singh and Pankaj Singh sent back their top order by bowling fast and keeping the length full. Being in the field for the first eight sessions had affected the hosts’ batsmen mentally and physically.”It is very easy for me to say that the Rajasthan bowlers bowled well and they definitely did that. But there is no doubting the fact they had a cushion of 620 runs,” Karthik said. “And they bowled to their strengths, bowling in straight lines consistently.”At the same time the, Karthik did not blame his own bowlers for failing to stall the opposition. “Our bowlers did a fantastic job throughout the season but this was the game where the Rajasthan batsmen applied themselves and the wicket was very good to bat on (on the first two days) and they did not make any mistake at all.”Karthik appreciated Saxena’s relaxed demeanour throughout his marathon knock of 257, spread across 907 minutes. “It is very difficult to concentrate for such long periods of time without making a mistake and that was fantastic. Nor did he play a false stroke.”Comparatively, Tamil Nadu were hurt by the lack of partnerships: if Rajasthan had one double-century and two century partnerships, the highest for the hosts was the 76-run alliance between Karthik and R Prasanna for the fourth wicket. “To put it simply, there were about fifteen sessions in the game and they won all fifteen whether it be batting and bowling. Their lowest partnership must have been close to a hundred. We could not even get one hundred partnership and they had a double-hundred partnership. That is how good they were.”Despite failing to win the title once again, Karthik said there was no need for any drastic measures. In fact, he said the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association had supported the players by retaining the group across the last few years. If anything, he said Tamil Nadu should be proud. “In all honesty, to finish No.2 is nothing to be ashamed about. It was a proud achievement the way we have played our cricket. It was the only game in the entire Ranji Trophy we had lost and it says a lot about this team.”Karthik said the bowling attack, led by L Balaji was a big improvement over the previous years. However, he picked one area of improvement. “I would love to see a pool of spinners to choose from. At the moment I see four spinners – two left-armers and two off spinners – (so) I would like see a leg spinner who can come and help us.”

Less than 24 hours after he captained Australia in a T20 at the MCG, George Bailey scored 94 to lead Tasmania to a Ryobi Cup win over New South Wales in Hobart

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Feb-2012
ScorecardLess than 24 hours after he captained Australia in a T20 at the MCG, George Bailey scored 94 to lead Tasmania to a Ryobi Cup win over New South Wales in Hobart. In a match full of outstanding individual performances, it was Bailey and Jason Krejza (6 for 55) who ended up on the winning side, while Usman Khawaja’s century and Scott Coyte’s six wickets went unrewarded for the Blues.The major problem for New South Wales was that they failed to bat out their 50 overs after Khawaja gave them such a good start. Khawaja struck three sixes in his 100, including two consecutive ones over cover off Luke Butterworth, and he showed that he has plenty to offer in the limited-overs format, having now scored three centuries in his 16 one-day games.But when Khawaja departed in the 34th over it led to a string of wickets as Krejza troubled the middle and lower orders with his flight and turn. Several of the New South Wales batsmen contributed to their own downfalls – four of Krejza’s wickets were from catches in the deep – including Steven Smith, who chipped a catch to long-on for 45.The Blues were bowled out in the 48th over for 230 but when Tasmania stumbled to 2 for 8 as Coyte began in fine fashion it seemed that maybe the target was good enough. However, Bailey and Mark Cosgrove (52) combined for an 82-run stand to put the Tigers back on track, Bailey anchoring the chase with his impressive strokeplay.Coyte picked up 6 for 60 in what was comfortably a career best, initially troubling the top order with swing and later with some extra bounce and pace, but he needed support. Only one other bowler picked up a single wicket and the Tigers were able to cruise home with 31 balls to spare, with Butterworth at the crease on 42 and Brady Jones on 16, and it was enough for Tasmania to move to the top of the Ryobi Cup table.

Brendan Taylor, the Zimbabwe captain, will play in the Bangladesh Premier League after signing up with Chittagong Kings

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Feb-2012Brendan Taylor, the Zimbabwe captain, will play in the Bangladesh Premier League after signing up with Chittagong Kings.”We have just signed for Brendan to join the Chittagong Kings for the last three games and the finals in the BPL,” Taylor’s agent said. “The deal was negotiated directly by us with the owner and CEO, Sameer Quader Chowdhury, of the Chittagong Kings.”Chittagong are currently in third place, with eight points, two behind joint leaders, Khulna Royal Bengals and Duronto Rajshahi.Taylor has played 54 Twenty20s, averaging 31 at a strike-rate of 122.04. He recently played in New Zealand’s domestic Twenty20 league, and smashed a career-best 101 for Wellington.

A round-up of the One Day National Cup Division Two semi-finals

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Mar-2012Zain Abbas made an unbeaten century to lead Khan Research Laboratories into the final with an eight-wicket win over Lahore Eagles at National Stadium. KRL took their time to chase the modest target of 220, easing to victory in 47 overs with Abbas finishing on 105 off 144 deliveries. Ali Khan (50) helped Abbas in getting the chase off to a solid start with an opening stand of 108. Saeed Anwar was around to support Abbas till the end. The KRL bowlers had earlier restricted Lahore to 219 for 9. Lahore had a disastrous start when they lost their openers without a run scored. They continued to lose wickets and but for a patient 76 from captain Usman Salahuddin and useful knocks from Mohammad Irfan and Tanzeel Altaf down the order, would have struggled to go past 200.In another one-sided match, United Bank thrashed Quetta Bears by nine wickets as they chased down 193 with nearly 12 overs to spare in Karachi. Again, a strong opening partnership laid the platform for the win, with Adnan Baig and Ali Asad adding 75. After Baig departed for a quick 47, Asad and Saad Sukhail motored to unbeaten half-centuries to bring up the win in the 39th over. Asad was unbeaten on 84 off 119 while Sukhail made 50 off 68. Quetta had struggled to 192 with captain Taimur Ali (53) the lone batsman to make an impact. Mohammad Irshad took three wickets for United Bank.

ESPNcricinfo previews the 4th match of IPL 2012 between Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab in Jaipur

The Preview by Devashish Fuloria05-Apr-2012Match factsFriday, April 6, Jaipur
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)Rahul Dravid is without the services of his ace-man Shane Watson for the first half of the season•AFPBig pictureWhile the richer teams have grown stronger with big-name buys during the 2012 auction, Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab have been slowly pushed to a second-tier status in the IPL. However, under captains Rahul Dravid and Adam Gilchrist, both teams are capable of punching above their weight.Dravid was an automatic choice for captain after the departure of Shane Warne and he will be intent on making an impression on Kings XI as much as on his own team. His first job will be to shape the team according to his vision, after the leadership of Warne, who was synonymous with brand Royals. Dravid can take cues from his opposite number Gilchrist, who hasn’t been the force he used to be with the bat, but led Deccan Chargers to a title and has extracted performances from little known players, Paul Valthaty for example, after moving to Kings XI.A win in the opening game is important for Royals because their next three matches are against strong teams and any points from this game will provide that initial boost. Kings XI will look to do the same and identify who their superstar this season will be.The match will also have a bowl-off between Sreesanth and Praveen Kumar. Sreesanth, who joined Royals this year, has the opportunity to score points over a jaded Praveen, who appeared ineffective in international matches in Australia and Bangladesh.Players to watchWith performances belying his 41 years, Brad Hogg was the leading spinner in this year’s Big Bash League, taking 13 wickets. Using his mix of chinaman deliveries and googlies, Hogg could fill the void left by Warne in the Rajasthan attack.Punjab spent $200,000 to buy the services of Azhar Mahmood, the only player who has played for Pakistan* in this IPL. That could prove to be a bargain as Mahmood can be dangerous with bat and ball.2011 head-to-headKings XI won their only match against Royals last year, a 48-run win set up by Shaun Marsh’s 42-ball 71.Stats and triviaBrad Hodge, who is now part of the Royals, is the second-highest run-getter in Twenty20 cricket, only 44 behind David Hussey’s 4270.Azhar Mahmood is one of four players* to have more than 100 wickets and 2000 runs in the Twenty20 format.Royals and Kings XI have played seven games against each other and the head-to-head record is 4-3 in Royals’ favour.Quotes”Warnie’s absence is undoubtedly a big loss. In the first four years he has done a lot for the team. But this time the responsibility is on Rahul Dravid. Having so much experience, even Dravid knows how to handle the situations and we are ready for the challenge. We have players who have performed well in all formats of the game. The seniors like Rahul, Sreesanth and I will also ensure that we play our part right and help the team perform in the tournament.”

“There are bigger hitters than me in the IPL, but I realise that the pressure will definitely be on me since I’ve done well last year, and I’m ready for it. I won’t change the way I play and will approach my batting in the same fashion – strokes and all – and hope to have the same results”
An IPL 2011 success story, Paul Valthaty, will have the weight of expectation this time round. *April 6, 19:30 GMT: The article earlier said that Azhar Mahmood is the only player to take more than 100 wickets and score more than 2000 runs in Twenty20 cricket.*04:44 GMT, April 6: The article had stated that Azhar Mahmood was the only Pakistan-born player in this IPL. This has been corrected.Edited by George Binoy

Shaun Tait set it up and Shane Watson finished the job in clinical fashion. Rajasthan Royals delivered a seven-wicket drubbing over Pune Warriors, low on morale, to move to fourth in the points table

The Report by Kanishkaa Balachandran08-May-2012
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsShane Watson powered Royals to No.4•AFPShaun Tait set it up and Shane Watson finished the job in clinical fashion. Rajasthan Royals delivered a seven-wicket drubbing to a low on morale Pune Warriors and moved to fourth in the points table. Warriors looking to reverse a five-match losing streak, struggled against restrictive Royals bowling to post 125, but lacked the firepower to cause a scare. After an impressive start to the tournament, they limped out of the race for the playoffs.Royals conceded just five fours – the least in a completed innings this season – and were spearheaded by Tait, who took 3 for 13. Unlike Royals, who duly opened with the aggressive Watson, Warriors saved their power hitters for the middle order. Sourav Ganguly promoted himself to open after, curiously, coming in at No.7 against Kolkata Knight Riders. It was a questionable move having Ganguly and Michael Clarke right at the top, given that they aren’t the quickest scorers in the line-up. What followed was a sluggish opening passage, in which the Powerplay overs had 14 dots.Ganguly charged the seamers, made room, but failed to find the timing to match his intentions. Clarke’s drives failed to find the middle of the bat, often resulting in edges and mistimed flicks. Both openers were searching for a release, but the slower balls and the wicketkeeper Dishant Yagnik standing up to the stumps thwarted them.Warriors lost Ganguly as he miscued a pull off Tait, giving a swirling catch to square leg. Despite Warriors struggling to find the boundaries, they persisted with their conservative approach by promoting little-known Bengal batsman Anustup Majumdar ahead of more aggressive options like Angelo Mathews and Steven Smith.Only two fours were scored in the first ten overs, the lowest this season. Save for the first over, never at any stage in that period did the rate go above six an over. Majumdar interrupted a 42-ball snoozefest when he gave Ankeet Chavan a charge and launched him for the first of two sixes over wide long-on in the 11th over, which cost 16 runs – the most expensive of the innings.However, his cameo didn’t last longer than 20 balls when he was yorked by a 98.4 kph missile from Johan Botha the following over. The last eight overs produced just 46 runs to give Warriors a total well under par.Royals lost their star player Ajinkya Rahane for a duck courtesy a brilliant one-handed catch at point by Smith. Smith nearly pulled off a freak catch at the boundary which would have sent Watson back on 11, if the rule on outfield catches hadn’t been tweaked. After going deep in his crease to pound a six off Murali Kartik, he repeated the shot four balls later. Smith cupped the ball over his head, realised the momentum was taking him over the rope and threw the ball up. He was outside the field of play and airborne when he palmed the ball back in front of the rope, deeming it a six, owing to the rule change.Watson capitalised on that lifeline and proceeded to hammer boundaries. At the end of five overs, Royals had hit five fours and two sixes, the same number Warriors managed in 20. Watson tore into Ashish Nehra, clipping two half volleys to the leg side for fours, before pulling another loosener over fine leg for six to bring up his fifty. Watson scored a massive 71.4% of the team’s total, underlining his dominance on a pitch which flummoxed 11 Warriors.Royals coasted home with 22 balls remaining, making it one of the more one-sided encounters this season. Warriors, with eight points from 13 games, now have only pride to play for.

West Indies have openly embraced the return of their premier batsman Chris Gayle

Nagraj Gollapudi at Hove03-May-2012West Indies have openly embraced the return of their premier batsman Chris Gayle, who on Wednesday committed to making himself available for selection for the one-day leg of their tour of England. In doing so he decided to forsake his contract with Somerset as an overseas player for the Friends Life t20 and Ottis Gibson, the West Indies coach, said if Gayle was available, he would “definitely be picked”.However, West Indies captain, Darren Sammy, warned that his predecessor will need to get used to the new “hardworking culture” put in place in the West Indies dressing room.Speaking at West Indies’ media conference at Hove, ahead of a three-day tour match beginning on Saturday, Gibson said: “It is great to hear that Chris is available again. I’m sure the selectors will pick him, because he is world-class. If he’s made himself available for the one-day series, I can’t see him not being selected.”Gibson, who has been openly critical of Gayle in the past, was confident that despite having not played international cricket since the 2011 World Cup, the opener would slip back into the team environment without fuss. “It will be very easy [for him],” Gibson responded, after being asked whether Gayle would find it difficult to re-establish himself in the international arena. “He’s the best one-day batsman in the world. So I don’t think it will be a problem at all.”He plays very well, going into many different dressing rooms all round the world and making runs. I don’t think coming into ours will be any different.”Sammy said the team had not been distracted by the standoff between Gayle and the WICB, which has remained the main West Indies talking point in the last year, despite the team making gradual progress in certain areas. Asked if it had been unsettling for him to read about the Gayle issue all the time, Sammy pointed out he was busy drilling in the new culture that he and Gibson had put in place.”I don’t necessarily focus on that. I am more focused on what the team is trying to do,” Sammy said. “The Chris Gayle issue has been going on for a while but we as a team have moved on and as you could see the last series we played we came out with a new attitude: where we are not going to let anybody keep us down. We are going to strive to move forward. When Chris joins the set-up, he will be coming into a very hardworking environment in which he has to fit in.”At the same time Sammy said Gayle’s return could only be a good thing for West Indies cricket. “As a captain, whoever comes into the dressing I know myself and the coach would welcome them. Obviously we would urge them to contribute to the team’s success. If he is in it is all good for us. We all know what he is capable of doing and hopefully he could fit in nicely and do the job to take West Indies cricket forward.”Gayle had ruled himself out of selection for the three-Test series against England having got a NOC from the WICB to participate in the IPL, where he represents Royal Challengers Bangalore. Gibson did not entirely agree with the opinion that some West Indies players were more interested in the monetary gains accrued from playing in lucrative Twenty20 tournaments around the world, while they picked and chose which series to play in national colours.”In an ideal world you would want all your best players available to you all the time and still be making money and the board to be able to say to somebody ‘we don’t want you to go to the IPL, so we will pay you X amount of money to stay at home and play for us’, but the reality is that is not possible in the Caribbean because of the financial situation,” Gibson said.In such a situation, Gibson said the WICB did not have much to bargain with. “The board has tried to negotiate, if you like, with people. That is what it has come to. That is the reality. So some guys can go off and play in the IPL and come back and play in the one-day series for instance. It is a little bit of give and take. It is good to see some of the guys go down that road rather than say they are unavailable completely. So it is not ideal but it is what it is and we just have to get on with it really.”Edited by Alan Gardner

Tillakaratne Dilshan made his first Test hundred in more than a year, Kumar Sangakkara drew level with Don Bradman on 29 centuries as Pakistan were made to toil

The Report by Siddarth Ravindran22-Jun-2012
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara began the Test series with hundreds•Associated PressSmart stats

Tillakaratne Dilshan’s century is his 13th in Tests and his second against Pakistan. It is his first century at home since August 2009. Between that game and the start of this Test, he averaged 28.00 from 21 innings.

Kumar Sangakkara’s century is his 29th in Tests. It is his eighth against Pakistan and brings him level on top with Aravinda de Silva on the list of batsmen with most centuries against Pakistan.

The century stand between Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene is their 15th in Tests. They are behind Sachin Tendulkar-Rahul Dravid, Gordon Greenidge-Desmond Haynes and Matthew Hayden-Ricky Ponting among batting pairs with the most century stands.

Sangakkara’s average of 64.43 is the highest among batsmen with 5000-plus runs in home Tests. Jayawardene is second, with an average of 60.88.

Sangakkara and Jayawardene become the only batting pair to aggregate over 1000 partnership runs against Pakistan. Three other partnership pairs have more century partnerships than Sangakkara-Jayawardene (three 100 stands) against Pakistan.

This is only the seventh occasion that Sri Lanka have managed century stands for the second and third wickets in an innings. The last time they did so was against India at the SSC in 2010.

Jayawardene scored his tenth half-century (to go with seven centuries) in 20 Tests in Galle. In his last seven innings at the venue, he has scored two centuries and three half-centuries.

Nine months ago, the ICC had said a “better balance between bat and ball (needs to be) achieved” after a Galle dustbowl made life difficult for batsmen. Today, on an unexpectedly sunny day in Galle, Sri Lanka reached stumps at a commanding 300 for 2.Ahead of the series, Mahela Jayawardene had talked of the need for Sri Lanka’s experienced players to build a platform for the others. He couldn’t have expected more: Tillakaratne Dilshan made his first Test hundred in more than a year, Kumar Sangakkara drew level with Don Bradman on 29 centuries and Jayawardene himself made an unbeaten 55.It rounded off a wretched day for Pakistan cricket. Before the start of play came the news of disgraced former captain Salman Butt returning home from jail and denying involvement in spot-fixing, and towards stumps the headlines were about legspinner Danish Kaneria being found guilty of corruption by the ECB.Though the scoreline might suggest it, the Galle track didn’t overnight become a clone of the famously flat SSC pitch. It didn’t provide much for the quick bowlers – either with the new ball or old – but there was plenty to interest Pakistan’s world-class spinners. As early as the first session, Abdul Rehman got the odd ball to bounce extra, all the spinners got the ball to turn sharply.Especially in the half hour before lunch, Saeed Ajmal and Rehman piled on the pressure. Dilshan survived several lbw appeals, Sangakkara edged past slip, there was a leading edge from Dilshan, the spinners put together three successive maidens, and despite a healthy score of 94 for 1 Sri Lanka were relieved when the lunch interval arrived.Before that spell, Dilshan had dished out his usual crash-bang-wallop style of batting. Mohammad Hafeez, the stand-in Pakistan captain, had done a solid job on being handed the ball early in recent Tests, but he was launched over long-on for six in his second over. By the time Junaid returned for his second spell around the morning drinks break, Dilshan was serving up regular boundaries: a couple of dismissive pulls for four and nutmegging the non-striker with a punched drive for another four.Kumar Sangakkara played an innings expected from him. Minimal risks were taken, the sweep shot was employed tactically as the spinners plugged away, and it wasn’t till he was past his half-century that the more cavalier lofted drives were brought out. He was the most comfortable of the Sri Lankan batsmen, not flustered by anything Pakistan flung at him.Pakistan should count among Sangakkara’s favourite opposition: he now has 1941 Test runs against them at an average of 84.39. If there were any nerves in the 90s, he was hardly tested as he was first gifted a wide delivery that was easily put away through cover before being handed a dreadful delivery well down the leg side which he helped to the fine leg boundary to reach 99. Then, he panicked momentarily, dropping the ball towards mid-off and setting off for a dicey single which needed a dive to beat the throw.Jayawardene’s innings, on the other hand, wasn’t what you’d expect from him. He got off the mark on his 16th delivery with a scoop for four, and followed it up with a reverse-sweep for another boundary. Though he went on to another half-century at a ground where he routinely scores hundreds, he looked shaky at times, top-edging an attempted paddle and surviving an lbw call off Umar Gul on 21, though he looked plumb.Gul may have gone wicketless on the day, but he bowled with heart on an unhelpful surface. The umpire missed a Tharanga Paranavitana inside-edge early in the morning to deny Gul a wicket. He beat the bat plenty of times and had several lbw appeals, but couldn’t get the breakthroughs.The only Sri Lankan to have a bad day was Paranavitana, whose hold on the opening slot is tenuous given that Lahiru Thirimanne is on the bench. He didn’t make too much of a case for getting an extended run as two balls after being put down at silly point, he uncharacteristically charged out against Ajmal to be comprehensively beaten, and stumped.After that, Sangakkara was involved in two big partnerships as Sri Lanka steadily moved into a position of dominance.

A tight final over from Jim Allenby earned Glamorgan a two-run victory over Nottinghamshire under the Duckworth-Lewis Method in a rain-affected Clydesdale Bank 40 clash at Swansea.

05-Aug-2012
ScorecardA tight final over from Jim Allenby earned Glamorgan a two-run victory over Nottinghamshire under the Duckworth-Lewis Method in a rain-affected Clydesdale Bank 40 clash at Swansea. The defeat meant Notts failed to take the opportunity of going top of Group B, while Glamorgan maintain their slim hopes of qualification for the semi-finals.Nottinghamshire had reached 77 for 4 in 18 overs in pursuit of 182 to win when rain interrupted play for more than an hour. When play restarted Notts were required to reach 110 to win, meaning they needed 33 off the final three overs.Samit Patel and Chris Read managed 13 from Allenby’s first over and six came from the first five balls of Graham Wagg’s final over before Patel was caught at long-on off the final delivery.That left the visitors requiring another 13 from Allenby’s final over – but Read and Scott Elstone could only manage five from the first five balls to give Glamorgan victory. Read did hit a six off the final ball – but it was purely a consolation.The Glamorgan spinners, and particularly Cosker, checked the visitors’ progress at the start of their reply. Cosker, who opened the bowling, struck in the third over to have Michael Lumb caught at midwicket, and four overs later Alex Hales was stumped to leave Nottinghamshire 24 for 2.Although Cosker got two crucial wickets he was struck for two sixes off Riki Wessels, who made 38 – including a third six off Wagg – before being caught at square leg off Robert Croft. At that stage Notts were two runs ahead of the required rate – but just before they went off for rain Cosker trapped Adam Voges leg before wicket and the rate went up to 87, which meant Glamorgan were winning.The backbone of Glamorgan’s 181 for 8, after they won the toss, was Ben Wright’s 62 from 70 balls which included two straight sixes. With Marcus North he put on 61 in 15 overs after Glamorgan had struggled to 63 for 4 and then 88 for 5.Glamorgan had got off to a breezy enough start with Gareth Rees and Mark Wallace accruing 38 in the first six overs. Rees struck two sixes off Samit Patel, who opened the bowling on the slow pitch – the same one which was used for the County Championship match against Gloucestershire.But both Rees and Wallace holed out off Andy Carter and Graham White, who ended with 3 for 28 from his eight overs. White struck three times in as many overs. He trapped Chris Cooke lbw, while Allenby became the third to hole out.After Stewart Walters was caught at slip off Patel it was left to North and Wright to pick up the pieces. In the fourth over before the end North was also caught attempting a big shot, but Wright helped to add 23 from the last over – including a six off Patel.