Sri Lanka, Pakistan return to tests after attack
Four months after a deadly terror attack on the Sri Lankan team in Pakistan, the two nations will renew their test cricket rivalry when the first test starts at Galle on Saturday.Their last meeting in a test grabbed world headlines for a bloody ambush outside Gadaffi Stadium that killed six police officers and a driver and wounded seven Sri Lankan cricketers. The Sri Lanka team bus was approaching the ground for the third day's play of the second test when more than a dozen heavily armed men ambushed the vehicle.
The incident forced the visiting team to return to Colombo immediately and the match was abandoned.
Sri Lankan batsman Thilan Samaraweera's rare feat of scoring two consecutive double-hundreds was a highlight of the series along with Younis Khan's triple-hundred for Pakistan in the first test.
Rain gave India the advantage says Kirsten
India's head coach, Gary Kirsten, acknowledged that his team had a distinct advantage in the Third Digicel One Day International at the Beausejour Cricket Ground since their innings was not as affected by the weather as the home side's."It definitely helps a team batting second in this type of set up. It did suit us to be batting second because you can dictate the game a little better when the overs are shortening in terms of what you need," the former South African batsman told reporters at the post match press conference after his team secured a tense six wicket victory in the final over.
India seal victory in rain affected match
India sealed a tense six wicket Duckworth/Lewis victory off the penultimate delivery in a match which must hold some obscure record for the most rain interruptions. Chasing 186 for victory from 27 overs, the Indian target was reduced to 159 from 22 overs after the fifth rain interruption.
Captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, marshalled his team to victory with an unbeaten 46 from 34 balls with two boundaries and one maximum to secure the Man of the Match title and win himself a Blackberry Storm from the series sponsor.
At the outset of their run chase, top scorer and makeshift opener Dinesh Karthik (47 from 43b, 5x4, 1x6), and Gautam Gambhir (44 from 38b, 2x4) set the victory march on a firm foundation as they put on 84 before Karthik – a regular wicketkeeper who has been thrust into the opening role in the absence of the injured Virender Sehwag – was dismissed by lanky left arm spinner, Sulieman Benn (5-0-31-1).
The Indian run chase received a further boost in the 14th over when rain stopped play for the umpteenth time. At that stage, after 13.3 overs India were 95 for 1 needing 186 from 27 overs.
At the resumption of the Third Digicel One Day International at the Beausejour Cricket Ground, their target was reduced to 159 and they effectively needed 64 runs from 51 deliveries. With nine wickets in hand, they held the clear advantage.
Dhoni played as intelligently as he had done in his innings of 95 in the previous game at Sabina Park and an Indian victory seemed a certainty until the end of a phenomenal 21st over by the irrepressible Dwayne Bravo (4-0-27-1). With 16 runs needed from 12 balls, Bravo sent down six deliveries at the cost of five miserly runs plus the wicket of Rohit Sharma (11 from 9b) who tried to get India out of the red by attempting a big heave.
It meant that the visitors were set back, they then needed 11 runs from the last over. Windies skipper, Chris Gayle, chose Jerome Taylor (3.5-0-39-0) to bowl the over and after a single from the first delivery, Dhoni effectively secured the win with a huge six into the stands off the next. With four runs from four balls needed, a double and two singles formalised the triumph.
Play only commenced after a more than two hour delay by which time the game was reduced to 41 overs per side. Dhoni's opposite number, Gayle, started in a manner reminiscent of a runaway freight train. Within three and a half overs, he had scored all of the Windies' 27 runs. The big left hander needed only 13 balls to hit six fours before the second weather intervention. When he returned to the crease the game had been reduced to 39 overs and he lasted only one more ball, being out caught behind to Ashish Nehra who ended with 3 wickets for 21 runs from 5 overs.
Despite being plagued by two more stoppages, shaving the game down to 36 overs, then again reducing it to 27 overs, top scorer, Ramnaresh Sarwan (62 from 59b, 5x4, 1x6), hitting the ball with a crispness indicative of his class, rallied to put on 51 for the second wicket with opener Runako Morton (22), and 47 with his fellow Guyanese, Shiv Chanderpaul (15).
Sarwan's run out left the score on 135 for 4 in the 21st over and it pegged the home side back. However the Bravo brothers, Darren (21 from 15b, 3x4) and Dwayne (14), batting together for the first time in an international match, added 35 from 26 balls to push the score up to one which could have been considered challenging.
In the end it was, as Gayle mentioned in the post match press conference, a shade too few and the Indians had fewer interruptions during their innings to contend with allowing them to get home with only minor scares induced by the spectacular senior Bravo who can hardly be kept out of the action.
India have moved ahead in the four match Digicel Series 2-1 with the final encounter slated for Sunday at the same venue.
Captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, marshalled his team to victory with an unbeaten 46 from 34 balls with two boundaries and one maximum to secure the Man of the Match title and win himself a Blackberry Storm from the series sponsor.
At the outset of their run chase, top scorer and makeshift opener Dinesh Karthik (47 from 43b, 5x4, 1x6), and Gautam Gambhir (44 from 38b, 2x4) set the victory march on a firm foundation as they put on 84 before Karthik – a regular wicketkeeper who has been thrust into the opening role in the absence of the injured Virender Sehwag – was dismissed by lanky left arm spinner, Sulieman Benn (5-0-31-1).
The Indian run chase received a further boost in the 14th over when rain stopped play for the umpteenth time. At that stage, after 13.3 overs India were 95 for 1 needing 186 from 27 overs.
At the resumption of the Third Digicel One Day International at the Beausejour Cricket Ground, their target was reduced to 159 and they effectively needed 64 runs from 51 deliveries. With nine wickets in hand, they held the clear advantage.
Dhoni played as intelligently as he had done in his innings of 95 in the previous game at Sabina Park and an Indian victory seemed a certainty until the end of a phenomenal 21st over by the irrepressible Dwayne Bravo (4-0-27-1). With 16 runs needed from 12 balls, Bravo sent down six deliveries at the cost of five miserly runs plus the wicket of Rohit Sharma (11 from 9b) who tried to get India out of the red by attempting a big heave.
It meant that the visitors were set back, they then needed 11 runs from the last over. Windies skipper, Chris Gayle, chose Jerome Taylor (3.5-0-39-0) to bowl the over and after a single from the first delivery, Dhoni effectively secured the win with a huge six into the stands off the next. With four runs from four balls needed, a double and two singles formalised the triumph.
Play only commenced after a more than two hour delay by which time the game was reduced to 41 overs per side. Dhoni's opposite number, Gayle, started in a manner reminiscent of a runaway freight train. Within three and a half overs, he had scored all of the Windies' 27 runs. The big left hander needed only 13 balls to hit six fours before the second weather intervention. When he returned to the crease the game had been reduced to 39 overs and he lasted only one more ball, being out caught behind to Ashish Nehra who ended with 3 wickets for 21 runs from 5 overs.
Despite being plagued by two more stoppages, shaving the game down to 36 overs, then again reducing it to 27 overs, top scorer, Ramnaresh Sarwan (62 from 59b, 5x4, 1x6), hitting the ball with a crispness indicative of his class, rallied to put on 51 for the second wicket with opener Runako Morton (22), and 47 with his fellow Guyanese, Shiv Chanderpaul (15).
Sarwan's run out left the score on 135 for 4 in the 21st over and it pegged the home side back. However the Bravo brothers, Darren (21 from 15b, 3x4) and Dwayne (14), batting together for the first time in an international match, added 35 from 26 balls to push the score up to one which could have been considered challenging.
In the end it was, as Gayle mentioned in the post match press conference, a shade too few and the Indians had fewer interruptions during their innings to contend with allowing them to get home with only minor scares induced by the spectacular senior Bravo who can hardly be kept out of the action.
India have moved ahead in the four match Digicel Series 2-1 with the final encounter slated for Sunday at the same venue.
West Indies beats India by 8 wickets in 2nd ODI
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The four-match series is now level at 1-1 as the teams head to St. Lucia for the final two matches next Friday and Sunday.
Man of the Match Ravi Rampaul took a career-best 4-37 as the visitors were bowled out for a modest 188 off 48.2 overs.
Dwayne Bravo claimed 3-26 and Jerome Taylor 3-35 but India's captain M.S. Dhoni cracked a defiant 95 off 130 balls to offer some respectability to his team's innings.
He and R.P. Singh (23) produced a record ninth wicket stand of 101 after the home team was well on top at 82-8.
But the West Indies coasted to victory as captain Chris Gayle and Runako Morton hit contrasting half centuries in a century opening stand.
Gayle blasted eight fours and two sixes in 64 off 46 balls.
Morton hit six fours in an unbeaten 85 off 102 deliveries and finished the match with his only six as the West Indies reached 192-2 off 34.1 overs.
"We should have showed a bit more respect towards the bowlers," a disappointed Dhoni said. "I think we didn't assess the wicket well enough and went on with our strokes and that really caused our downfall."
"Once you lose too many wickets early on, the only job you're doing is catching up," Dhoni added.
India, who won the toss, was quickly reduced to 7-3 in the second over when Rampaul removed Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma for ducks.
Gambhir wafted at a square cut and snicked to Ramdin, who also should have held Sharma's edge but saw his fluffed attempt mopped up on the rebound at second slip by Runako Morton.
Dhoni and Friday's century-maker Yuvraj Singh rebuilt the damage in a fluent stand of 47 for the fourth wicket.
Yuvraj showed an exquisite touch, becoming the fifth Indian batsman to reach 7,000 runs in ODI cricket before he departed for 35 off 33 balls.
The left-hander, who hit five fours and one stunning pulled six, chased a wide delivery from Taylor and presented Ramdin with another catch at 54-4.
India soon slipped to 82-8 as Yusuf Pathan (0), Ravindra Jadeja (7), Harbhajan Singh (7) and Praveen Kumar (1) fell in quick succession.
Pathan fended a lifter to slip off Bravo, who also claimed Harbhajan, while Rampaul took the wickets of Jadeja and Kumar.
However, the home team couldn't complete the job as Dhoni and Singh shared their record partnership.
Bravo eventually claimed Singh for a career-best 23 off 75 balls while Taylor bowled Dhoni five short of a fifth one-day century
1st ODI -India Vs WestIndies=India win by 20 runs
Kingston, June 27 (yuvraj singh one of his typically dazzling centuries to power India to a 20-run win over West Indies in a high-scoring thriller in the first of the four One-day International cricket matches at Sabina Park here Friday.
Yuvraj's 102-ball 131 was laced with seven sixes and 10 fours and his 135-run third-wicket stand with Dinesh Karthik (67, 77b, 1x6, 6x4) paved the way for India to reach a highly defendable 339 for six from their 50 overs. India's was the second highest ODI total at Sabina Park.
Yuvraj and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (41, 46 balls, 1x6, 1x4) consolidated the innings in the middle overs with an 86-run fourth-wicket stand and in the rear, Yusuf Pathan chipped in with 40 not out (38b, 2x6, 2x4) and Harbajan singh 21 not out (13b, 2x6).
West Indies, however, came close to toppling India with skipper Chris Gayle (37, 33b, 1x6, 5x4)) and fellow-opener Runako Morton (42, 51b, 1x6, 4x4) smashing 65 runs inside the first power play. Ramnaresh Sarwan (45, 42b, 3x6, 1x4) and an aggressive Shivnarine Chanderpaul (63, 59b, 3x6, 3x4) kept West Indies in the hunt, but the lower order batsmen could not sustain the momentum and they were eventually bowled out for 319 with 11 balls to spare.
The home team needed 25 to win off the last three overs when Rudra Pratap Singh bowled Sulieman Benn for seven, the eighth wicket to fall.
Wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin kept the hopes alive, hitting 29 off 26 balls, before he was the last man to be dismissed, caught by Harbhajan singh off Ashish Nehra.
Left-arm pacer Nehra, who returned to the team after four years, finished with figures of three for 49. Off-spinner Yusuf also claimed three wickets.
Dhoni was happy to start on a winning note after the disappointing World Twenty20 campaign.
'The (team) morale has always been there but it's always good to win and it gets the disappointment out of the system,' said Dhoni.
'(yuvraj) took the time to get himself set and as we know, when he gets set he can bat like that. It was a brilliant innings,' he said.
The start, however, was not encouraging for India after skipper Dhoni decided to take first strike. Both gautam Gambir and Rohit Sharma succumbed to short-pitched deliveries, trying ambitious shots। Gautam top-edged a hook off Jerome Taylor and Sharma perished failing to control a pull off David Bernard. India were 32 for two in the eight overs.
Karthik dropped anchor and Yuvraj, too, was circumspect. The two quietly rotated the strike and once the spin was introduced, they piled on the pressure on the bowlers. Soon Yuvraj, who had been in fine touch in the World Twenty20, overtook Karthik and the two hit 70 runs in seven overs when Benn and Gayle bowled spin in tandem.
Karthik hit an amazing six, paddle-scooping Bernard, to reach his highest score in the ODIs but fell trying to repeat the stroke once too often.
Yuvraj soon got into the top gear and there was no stopping him as he hit both Taylor and Gayle for two sixes each.
He then treated Lionel Baker in a similar fashion, hitting the medium-pacer for two fours and a six to reach 98 and a quick single off Taylor saw him to his 12th ODI century. He cut loose and hit Taylor for two fours and a six in the same over.
The Indians shifted gears in the batting power play and the five overs fetched 62 runs. Yuvraj and Dhoni (41) were on the rampage, 37 coming off Taylor's two overs.
Just when the left-hander looked like putting the issue beyond the West Indies, piling up a huge total, Dwayne Bravo returned to dismiss Yuvraj and next man Ravindra Jadeja off successive balls. Yuvraj's spectacular innings came to an end when he was caught brilliantly down the legside by Denesh Ramdin diving to his right.
That set the Indians back as Dhoni was still struggling to connect his big shots and Yusuf batted cautiously till the last five overs. Dhoni ran himself out trying to steal a single.
Pathan hit the first ball of the last over from Bravo for a six and harbhajan clouted the last one into the stands to provide late flourish.
Pakistan are new sultans of T20-ICC WT20: Pak team celebrates
Pakistan outclassed Sri Lanka with their allround performance and won the World Twenty20 championship by eight wickets at the Lord's on Sunday। Pakistan, which finished runners-up to India in 2007, achieved the target of 139 in 18।4 overs after losing only two wickets as Man of the Match Shahid Afridi, promoted up the order, scored an unbeaten 54 off 40 balls।
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