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Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Mahela Jayawardene produced an innings of pure class, a rare gem, when it was most needed as Sri Lanka claimed their rightful place in the final of the 2007 World Cup, brushing aside New Zealand, who have reached the semifinals five times and never gone further. The 81-run win was Mahela’s baby, but Upul Tharanga played his part, as did Muttiah Muralitharan, who picked up 4 for 31 and spun New Zealand out for only 208.The progress of Jayawardene’s innings was not unlike the shaping of a diamond. It was raw to begin with – carefully negotiated dot-balls, as he reached 17 off 47 balls, and, as the right environment was created slowly but surely, 23 runs came off as many balls; then, as the carbon crystal was almost worth its weight in carats, Jayawardene applied immense heat and pressure, carting 60 off 30 balls; finally, when the stone was done he cut and polished his gem, taking 15 off 5 balls, and left it out there for the world to admire.Even Stephen Fleming, Jayawardene’s opposite number, and a captain known to take on and target his counterparts, was moved enough to walk up and congratulate him immediately after Sri Lanka had ended on 289 for 5. The manner in which he built his innings, never once doubting what was best for himself as batsman or the team as captain, harked back to the mindset of Sri Lanka’s World Cup winning captain, Arjuna Ranatunga. But the purity of his strokeplay, oozing class, not one shot played in anger, barely a desperate run scrambled, was reminiscent of that stylist, Aravinda de Silva.But though Jayawardene was never once in trouble in the course of his innings, and always in control, it was not as though the conditions were perfect for batting. Although there wasn’t exaggerated assistance for the bowlers, the ball wasn’t exactly coming onto the bat nicely to be driven on the up at will. The fall of first Sanath Jayasuriya – bowled through the gate by James Franklin with the score on 13 – and later Kumar Sangakkara, who chipped Franklin to mid-on with Sri Lanka on 67, and New Zealand sniffed a chance.Up until then it was Upul Tharanga, under severe pressure for occupying a spot some believed should have gone to Marvan Atapattu, had kept Sri Lanka going. He was scoring fluently, reaching 50 off 51 balls, though without any of the debonair mien of Jayawardene, and built a solid partnership with his captain. A late surge from him, including a sweetly timed six over cover, took him to 73 from 74 balls before he was bowled round his legs, shuffling across his stumps too much, by Daniel Vettori.In a tournament where the umpiring standards have been uniformly high, a rare error each from the most experienced umpire and the best one, accounted for the final two wickets that fell. Rudi Koertzen gave Chamara Silva out lbw after a thick inside-edge went back onto pad, and Simon Taufel raised the dreaded finger when Tillakaratne Dilshan attempted to sweep one from Jacob Oram that was delivered from wide of the crease and struck the left leg in line with leg stump and would easily have missed another set of stumps.Lasith Malinga slinged out fiery swinging deliveries to put NZ in early trouble•AFP

Yet Jayawardene had kept his end tight, and built partnerships both times – 41 for the fourth wicket and 81 for the fifth – and was around to finish things off in style. A straight six that was gently caressed back over Oram’s head, a wristy flick off a full-toss that just eluded Shane Bond at deep backward square-leg and went the distance, and some sizzling late cuts powered Sri Lanka to 289 for 5 from 50 overs. 102 runs had come off the last 10 overs, and with their bowling attack, in these conditions, Sri Lanka needed to play really badly to lose.Lasith Malinga kept up the tempo with a fiery spell, getting the ball to move away from the right-handed batsmen late at sheer pace. But it was a left-hander who suffered as Fleming was trapped in front of the stumps by one that started outside off and came into him. Ross Taylor, who has harassed by Malinga, was put out of his misery by Chaminda Vaas and Koertzen, adjudged lbw to a ball that would have missed the stumps.Scott Styris, as he has done all tournament, punched well above his weight, creaming three straight sixes – twice off Dilhara Fernando, who was a mental wreck after being twice warned for running on the danger area in his first over, and once off Muralitharan – but he only managed 37 before popping a simple catch to short midwicket off an innocuous offbreak from Dilshan.Muralitharan then swooped in, having Oram caught and bowled off a doosra, and then off the very next ball Brendon McCullum brilliantly caught by a diving Silva at short fine-leg, and all of a sudden New Zealand were 114 for 5. Peter Fulton, who had batted well for 46, chipped Jayasuriya to midwicket, Vettori offered his pad to a doosra that was pitched in line and destined for middle stump, and New Zealand were dead and buried at 116 for 7. The rest was mere formality, though a cameo from Franklin towards the end provided some passtime, as Sri Lanka romped into the final of the World Cup.

Hyderabad were within touching distance of table-toppers Andhra after securing a 44-run win over Chhattisgarh in Valsad. Hyderabad, who wobbled in the in the second innings to be bowled out for 122, left their opponents a tantalising prospect of having to chase down 286 in little under three sessions to secure an outright win. Chhattisgarh fought, but were eventually bowled out for 241 in 84.1 overs to slump to their third loss this season.There was a ray of hope when Ashutosh Singh (67) and Amandeep Khare (44) resisted in the middle session, but their dismissal hastened Chhattisgarh’s collapse. Ravi Kiran, the medium pacer, took four wickets while Akash Bhandari, the legspinner, took three. This was Hyderabad’s third win in six matches.Services took three points from the draw against Himachal Pradesh, who ended the match with a score of 145 for 2 in pursuit of 401 in Surat. They started the last day on 197 for 4, with a lead of 302, and batted for another 27.1 overs during which Rahul Singh scored a half-century to help them score 295 for 9.Services lost Vikas Hathwala on the third ball of the day before Rahul scored 58 and Mayank Dagar finished with 4 for 61. Himachal saw an opening stand of 71 between Prashant Chopra (66) and Ankit Kalsi (23). While the openers fell by the 27th over, Himachal saw no more stutters and collected one point.Jammu & Kashmir were left to rue a delayed declaration as Tripura hung on to draw and salvage one point in Mumbai. Resuming on 198 for 3 after securing an 18-run lead, J&K were driven by Ian Dev Chauhan’s unbeaten 129 that swelled their lead past 300. Parvez Rasool, the captain, made 67 and Aditya Partap contributed 51 not out in the team’s total of 318 for 4. Chasing 337 in 59 overs, Tripura slipped and slid before finishing on 168 for 8 when play ended. That they starved off defeat was largely due to Rajat Dey’s unbeaten 53.Nitin Saini’s double century and sprightly lower-order contributions from Sanjay Pahal (58) and Harshal Patel (53) helped Haryana take the first-innings honours against Goa in Ghaziabad. After conceding a 155-run lead, Goa edged towards parity for the loss of five wickets when play ended. Amit Mishra, released from the Indian team during the second Test to feature in this game, picked up three second-innings wickets. Sumiran Amonkar, the opener, was unbeaten on 57 when both captains shook hands.Andhra, who took the first-innings lead, starved off Kerala’s challenge in Guwahati to walk away with three points and retain the top spot in the group standings. Set a target of 296 overs in 80 overs, they were well placed at 193 for 4 when both captains decided a result wouldn’t be possible. Hanuma Vihari, the captain, defied Kerala’s bowlers for 224 deliveries in his 53. Opener Srikar Bharat contributed 73. That Kerala, who conceded a six-run lead, were in a position to declare on 302 for 6 was thanks to Rohan Prem’s 89. Kerala, yet to record a win this season, are currently placed fifth in the nine-team pool.

S Badrinath has been retained as Tamil Nadu’s captain for the coming Ranji season. Apart from Badrinath and Dinesh Karthik, Tamil Nadu will have a largely inexperienced squad, with only five players who have played more than 10 first-class matches. L Balaji, the former Test medium-fast bowler, has been left out of the squad that was picked for the first two matches. The management plans to ease him back into competitive cricket as the season progresses.Even among the experienced players, Badrinath, Karthik and Yo Mahesh will be the first targets for India A teams, if not the national team in the case of the former two. Offspinner R Ashwin, who has taken 34 wickets in the five matches he has played, might be the one to lead in their absence.In the absence of T Kumaran, who was one of the seven players to have joined the Indian Cricket League (ICL), the pace attack will have to be spearheaded by Mahesh. C Ganapathy, the right-arm medium-pacer and Ramadoss Naresh, the left-arm medium-pacer, are the two other experienced pacers. Murali Vijay, the right-hand opener, who impressed in his debut season last year, will be the main hope in the batting department, along with Badrinath, Karthik and S Anirudha, who played in the Challenger Trophy.Squad: S Badrinath (capt), M Vijay, S Anirudha, Dinesh Karthik, Kuthethurshri Vasudevadas, R Prasanna, R Ashwin, C Ganapathy, V Yo Mahesh, R Naresh, R Srinivasan, P Amarnath, R Ramkumar, Abhinav Mukund and KH Gopinath

Scorecard

The Patron’s XI openers put on an unbroken 65-run partnership after their legspinners grabbed seven wickets to bowl out the Zimbabweans for 209 on the opening day of the tour match in Karachi.Opting to bat, the Zimbabweans failed to capitalise on a 62-run third-wicket partnership and lost their last six wickets for only 27 runs. After Hamilton Masakadza, their stand-in captain in place of the injured Prosper Utseya, fell on the seventh ball of the innings, the Zimbabweans were carried past 50 by Brendan Taylor and Vusi Sibanda. While defensive play was the order of the morning, Taylor made it a point to latch onto anything wide of off stump. Cutting an impressive Sohail Khan to bring up his first boundary, Taylor then creamed Kamran Hussain through extra cover to ease off some pressure.While Sibanda perished to a catch behind the stumps, Taylor shifted gears and smashed Afridi over long-on for the first six of the morning. He then guided Sohail through gully and then dispatched an overpitched delivery through extra cover for another four. Tatenda Taibu, too, was in no mood to hang around. Following Taylor’s dismissal to a loose stroke off Yasir, Taibu, sensing Yasir as the weakest link in the bowling attack, swept the legspinner over midwicket for four before a similar shot fetched him a couple. However, with the next four deliveries reverse-swept – resulting in two fours, a dot ball and a leg-before appeal – Taibu made hisintentions quite clear.While Sean Williams was particularly harsh on Afridi – driving him through the covers and sweeping him over midwicket for a six – a reverse-sweep too many resulted in Taibu’s dismissal – taken at slip off Afridi – for a 60-ball 46. That was as good as it got for the touring side as the spincombination of Afridi and Yasir, as well as Fawad Alam – who managed Williams’ wicket in his first over – ran through their lower order. In search of quick runs, the Zimbabweans missed out on an ideal opportunity for batting practice in their first outing of the tour.In reply, Nasir Jamshed and Khalid Latif started aggressively as Jamshed – with 800 runs in the recently-concluded Quaid-e-Azam Trophy behind him – drove Christopher Mpofu through extra cover before pulling Elton Chigumbura through midwicket for fours. The introduction of spin failed to break the partnership, with Ray Price’s flighted delivery duly dispatched overlong-off by Jamshed.With a strong batting line-up, Patron’s XI will look to score quick runs on the second day and aim to use a a pitch which is expected to deteriorate with time to their advantage.

David Hussey, the Victoria batsman, may have been purchased for US$625,000 by the Kolkata franchise in the Indian Premier League’s auction, but his county side Nottinghamshire have insisted he is contracted to play for them this season. Hussey’s participation in the IPL, which runs from April 18 to June 1, would mean he misses the first five County Championship matches and eight games in the Friends Provident Trophy.Mike Newell, Nottinghamshire’s director of cricket, said: “We are currently talking to David and his advisors, so I would prefer not to comment at this stage other than to say that he signed a new two-year contract with us after the end of last season.”Hussey was one of the surprise buys at the IPL auction, being picked up well above his initial base price of $125,000. He even outdid his more famous brother, the Test player Michael, who went for $350,000. Unlike Michael, David was reportedly available for the entire tournament, which perhaps was one of the reasons why he sold for a higher price than the likes of Ricky Ponting and Matthew HaydenMeanwhile, Justin Langer, the former Australian Test opener, has indicated he will play for Somerset and won’t turn out for the Jaipur franchise. Langer collected his base price of $200,000, but Jaipur paid only $75,000 for him, with the Indian board covering the difference.”I have made a commitment to Somerset and I intend to honour it,” Langer told the . “I made that clear when I first signed with IPL and I have no hesitation sticking to it.”Langer fears the IPL will damage the game. “When you go to your grave,” he said, “people will remember what you did with your life rather than how much money you made.”The newspaper also reported Luke Ronchi, the Western Australia wicketkeeper, is considering an A$100,000 (approx US$92,000) offer to join the Mumbai franchise, while his team-mate Luke Pomersbach, who earned a car park call-up to play a Twenty20 international for Australia, is also set to join an IPL team. The Mumbai franchise failed to buy a wicketkeeper-batsman at the auction held on Wednesday.

Muttiah Muralitharan, who became only the second bowler in Test history to take 700 wickets, said that his main focus was not on breaking Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne’s world record but for Sri Lanka to win the two-Test series in Australia later this year.Sri Lanka’s next Test assignment is against Australia in November and Murali who took 12 wickets in the third and final Test against Bangladesh at Kandy on Saturday said: “It’s a big achievement taking 700 wickets. I knew anyway that I would get the 700 wickets. I want to go to Australia and try and win the series because we have never won one there. Also I have not taken five wickets in an innings in Australia. They are the No. 1 team in the world but we can also be better than them if we play to our strengths.”Muralitharan finished the three-Test series against Bangladesh with a haul of 26 wickets bringing him nine wickets closer to breaking Warne’s world record of 708. “I think I can achieve a little bit more than the world record. I hope to play until the next World Cup in 2011 and the challenge is before I retire I am thinking of taking 1000 Test wickets,” said the 35-year-old spinner.He described today’s victory by an innings and 193 runs as more special than taking 700 wickets. “If you are winning a match in less than 2 ½ days [taking into account disruption by rain] it is special. The way we batted and the way we bowled in the first innings was amazing. We played good cricket and didn’t allow Bangladesh to raise their heads. We wanted to knock them off every time we bowled and batted. That’s what we have done.”Sri Lanka captain Jayawardene praised his team’s all-round performance. “When you perform to that level it is always tough for a team like Bangladesh to keep up. Credit should go to the whole team, the way we played, the way we executed our game plan was brilliant. We should not take anything away from them. I am surprised the way we finished the series especially today after two days of rain. Mainly the way we bowled in the first innings and scored 470 run in a day put pressure on Bangladesh,” Jayawardene said.Bangladesh coach Shaun Williams said that Sri Lanka had basically given them lesson on how to go about playing good Test cricket. “They allowed us nothing and that’s what you expect from a top quality team. We don’t have enough to challenge top-shelf Test teams. It was very difficult to get many positives out of this sort of result. We were inconsistent in our batting although there were some individual performances. There were good signs here and there. But there were only little things we can take back. We got a lot to learn from Sri Lanka cricket, the way they’ve gone about building a side,” said Williams.”Sri Lanka’s got some superstars like Murali, Mahela and Sanga. The way they have built their A team and youth programme there’s a lot to be learnt from that. It hasn’t happened overnight. If Bangladesh cricket can learn from that then in time we can go forward,” he added.Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful said his side would put up a better performance in the one-day series starting next week. “Playing Test cricket was very tough in Sri Lanka. We know Test cricket is very difficult because Sri Lanka is a very good side especially at home. I am very confident we will put up a better performance in the one-day series,” he said.

At the working committee meeting of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, two more nails, perhaps the final ones, were drilled into the coffin of Jagmohan Dalmiya, the former president of the Indian board and the ICC.In a move that is widely being interpreted as a switching of loyalties, Brijesh Patel, a staunch Dalmiya loyalist, was given a post on a BCCI committee. And perhaps more damningly, the representative of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), Saradindu Pal, said that his association respected the board’s decision to expel Dalmiya.”The CAB’s secretary (Pal) told the board’s working committee today that the CAB respects the board’s decision (taken at Jaipur on December 16) by 29 votes in favour to expel Mr Dalmiya,” N Srinivasan, the board’s treasurer, and a man seen to be one of the driving forces behind the current regime’s efforts to see the back of Dalmiya, told reporters in Mumbai.”He [Pal] also said that Mr Dalmiya no longer functions as its president and an emergency meeting has been convened on the 27th (January) to take steps to implement the BCCI’s decision,” Srinivasan said. With this, it appears that Dalmiya’s fate in cricket administration in India is all but sealed, for the moment, at least.Equally significant was the fact that Patel, the former Test batsman and currently president of the Karnataka State Cricket Association, was named on a BCCI committee. Outside of Bengal he was one of the few Dalmiya loyalists, and it was no coincidence that he was the only prominent member of the board not to get a posting in any of the board’s 20-odd committees in the last AGM.Patel is on the newly formed committee that will decide on how to disburse the funds the BCCI has allocated towards the development of other sports in India. He is joined on this committee by MP Pandove of Punjab and Major SS Alhuwalia from the Services. It’s worth noting that no Ranji matches of either Karnataka or Bengal were to be telecast live when the BCCI announced its plans for the coverage of the current domestic season. Karnataka remains one of the marquee teams in the domestic competition and Bengal were runners-up last year, and yet it was decided that none of their games would be shown live.Patel’s return to the fold helped along by the fact that a committee needed to be formed to decide on the requests from Abhinav Bindra, the shooter, and Karan Rastogi the Indian Davis Cup team member and upcoming tennis star, seeking financial assistance from the BCCI. The board had received these requests in writing from the players themselves and not through the respective sporting federations. It was then decided that the financial assistance would be disbursed directly to players who were in with a chance of Olympic medals. Although no formal policy has been laid down by the BCCI on how this will happen, the formation of a committee to deliberate on the issue is the first step towards concrete action.With regard to more routine matters, it was decided cricket will not be a part of the 2010 Commonwealth Games to be held in Delhi. The working committee meeting of the board cited the Indian team’s packed fixtures as the main reason. “The working committee discussed the invitation to take part in the 2010 Commonwealth Games and felt that the Future Tours Programme as it stands now is too crowded and would not lend itself to participate in the Games,” Srinivasan said.The meeting also decided to form a committee to finalise the parameters for the players’ contracts. The committee comprises Inderjit Singh Bindra, president of the Punjab Cricket Association, Shashank Manohar, vice-president of the board, Niranjan Shah, honorary secretary of the BCCI, Ratnakar Shetty, the administrative head and Srinivasan. “At this moment I can’t say what the parameters will be but we will try to find the right balance,” said Srinivasan. “The board members were concerned with the performance of the team and felt that players should be motivated to do well.”The meeting also did not discuss the nomination of Sharad Pawar, the BCCI president, for the post of ICC president. However, Cricinfo has learned that the BCCI is “more likely to nominate than not nominate” Pawar for the post, by the January 1, 2007 deadline, in the words of a source. When the BCCI held the CK Nayudu awards on November 4, the same day it inaugurated its new offices at the Wankhede Stadium, representatives of appoximately 20 associate members of the ICC were invited to attend and a “majority” of them accepted and were present.

The Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) has refused to rule out the possibility of England’s leading players joining the Indian Premier League (IPL). Only Dimitri Mascarenhas has so far signed up to the IPL, while the likes of Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen have poured water on suggestions that they and their team-mates could be lured to the IPL by money.Currently, the IPL clashes with England’s county season but Lalit Modi, its chairman, maintains his willingness to shift the dates of future tournaments in order to accommodate English players. The ECB chairman, Giles Clarke, strongly believes that England’s players would rather play for their country than an Indian franchise, but Sean Morris, the PCA chief executive, is aware of the need for a balance.”We will ask the players how they feel,” he said. “We need to sit them down and ask their personal views – some might have different opinions to others. But I would like to think on behalf of the players we would be able to take advantage of this concept and allow them to reap the benefits.”There may be a very strong collective view but there may also be different circumstances for each individual which would affect their decision. We have a very open dialogue with the ECB right now, we met this week and will be meeting with them again next week, so there is a strong channel of communication.”Mr Modi is saying that he’s prepared to move his tournament to accommodate English players and that is music to everyone’s ears in this country.”The issue the PCA are trying to address with the ECB is the potential restriction of employment.”Their priority is England, they’ve all said that,” Morris said. “But I just hope we can come to a point where they’re comfortable with their arrangement with the ECB as their employers and take advantage of the increase in income into the game, because you’re a long time retired.”Restricting employees anywhere will cause friction in a relationship – over a period of time that will break it down.”Meanwhile Dougie Brown, the PCA chairman, insisted that for all the players’ loyalty to England, “IPL is not something that is going to go away – it’s going to be around for 10 years” and the ECB need to act sharply.”So we have to compartmentalise it within our own calendar, create a window of opportunity, or it will be a precarious situation that the ECB will find themselves in. You might find guys coming to the end of their careers will not sign a central contract, they will go and sign with the IPL instead. Suddenly you will be losing people a couple of years earlier than you might have.”

Muttiah Muralitharan, the Sri Lanka offspinner, is offering his fans the opportunity to bid on eBay for the chance to face him.The charity auction, at ebay.co.in, ends on December 11, and all the funds raised will go to Muralitharan’s own charity, the Foundation of Goodness which was set-up in 2004 following the tsunami which devastated the country.The highest bidder will face ten deliveries from Muralitharan on December 16 at the Seenigama Oval in Galle.

Scorecard

Ryan Hinds led by example by scoring 82 as Barbados posted 250 for 9 on the first day of their second round match against Leeward Islands at the North Stars Cultural & Social Club.Several Barbados batsmen got starts after they were asked to bat in overcast and windy conditions but no one apart from Hinds was able to convert them into a substantial innings. Dwayne Smith scored 43, Floyd Reifer 28, Ryan Austin 26 and Wayne Blackman 20 but Hinds was the only batsman to cross fifty. He struck a six and seven fours during his innings that spanned a little over four hours.The Leewards bowlers shared the wickets among them with Tonito Willett and Adam Sanford being the most successful with 2 for 5 and 2 for 63 respectively. Sanford provided the early breakthrough when he had Dale Richards caught at slip for 2.Barbados slipped to 37 for 3 before Hinds and Floyd Reifer began the recovery with a 47-run stand. Reifer looked solid until Carl Simon bowled a leg-cutter that induced the edge to second slip. Dwayne Smith joined Hinds and the pair added 66 – the highest partnership of the innings – for the fifth wicket. Smith, who had batted responsibly, perished to a cross-batted pull that was taken at deep midwicket, leaving Barbados on 150 for 5.Thereafter Barbados kept losing wickets at regular intervals and only a 57-run stand between Hinds and Ryan Austin propped them towards 250 for 9 at stumps. Austin batted with grit and Hinds was within sight of his sixth first-class hundred before he was run out.
ScorecardJamaica wasted a solid start from their openers to end the first day against Windward Islands on 231 for 6. Brenton Parchment and Danza Hyatt put on a century opening partnership but Windwards hit back with quick wickets to grab a slight advantage by the end of the day. Darren Sammy removed Wavell Hinds and finished the day with 2 for 37 off 19 overs- by far the pick of the bowlers.
The first day of the second-round match between Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana was abandoned due to heavy rain at Guaracara Park. Play was called off at 1.15pm..