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The Pakistan team has been fined for a slow-over rate in the second one-dayer against India at Rawalpindi.Ranjan Madugalle, the ICC match referee, ruled that Pakistan was three overs short at the stipulated cut-off time. While the team was penalised 15% of their match fee, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Pakistan’s captain, had to concede 30%. According to ICC regulations: (i) for each of the first five overs short of the minimum overs required, 5% of each player’s gross match fee in the fielding side; (ii) for the sixth and any subsequent over short of the minimum overs required, 10% of each player’s gross match fee in the fielding side.”Pakistan were earlier penalised for a slow over-rate in the first one-dayer at Karachi, when the bowlers took 20 extra minutes to complete bowling 50 overs.

Islamabad on Monday claimed the Cornelius Trophy after routing Quetta by an innings and 105 runs with more than a day to spare in the final played at Multan Cricket Stadium.Quetta, who were tottering at 57 for seven in their second innings after being forced to follow on, were dismissed in the first hour of the third day’s play for just 96 runs.Top all-rounder Yasir Arafat picked up five for 18 to finish with a match tally of eight. He was adjudged Man-of-the-Match and awarded with a cash prize of Rs 5000 and a trophy.Other wicket-takers were Irfan Bhatti and Shakeel Ahmed, both of whom captured two each.Islamabad had held a firm grip from the very first day scoring 355 in their first innings. Quetta could manage only 157 in reply but fared even more badly in the second innings and were clueless against a lethal attack.Captain Irfan Bhatti was presented the Cornelius Trophy along with a winners’ cheque of Rs 40,000. Islamabad’s Stephen John was declared Bowler of the Tournament.Summarised scores:ISLAMABAD 355 (Mohammad Asif 86, Bilal Asad 71, Shakeel Ahmed 46 not out, Yasir Arafat 37, Irfan Bhatti 37);QUETTA 157 (Aqeel Baloch 35; Shakeel Ahmed 3-27, Yasir Arafat 3-42, Rao Iftikhar 2-45) and 96 (Yasir Arafat 5-18).

Former captain Krishnamachari Srikkanth said that he feels the string of poor performances by the Indian team is because of a lack of foresight, planning and also failure in training youngsters.Srikkanth, who is currently touring the United States to popularise cricket among Non-Resident Indians and to promote ‘Champ Cricket’, a channel of the India-based web-portal ‘NumTV’, on Monday said that Indian players were being sent from one series to another without any analysis of what had gone wrong or without taking corrective steps.”Once a new series starts, the old one is forgotten and it becomes business as usual”, he said.”The game has become a big money earner for the Cricket Board, players, media and organisers. Even average Test players make up to Rs two crore a year. In the process, the quality has suffered,” Srikkanth added.Srikkanth, who along with Sunil Gavaskar formed what was probably India’s best opening pair, said: “Thorough planning is the need of the hour where promising youngsters are encouraged. The Board needs to plan for two or three years, set goals and work to achieve them.””When a player does well, he is put on a pedestal and then with one bad performance he is out of favour. Whereas the need is for consistency and encouragement to players with potential rather than passing judgment on them after one game,” Srikkanth said.

ScorecardFile Photo – Manish Pandey struck 13 fours and a six for his 163-ball 104•PTI

Manish Pandey’s 16th first-class hundred underpinned Karnataka’s batting dominance before a brace of late strikes from left-arm seamer Ravi Thakur helped Vidarbha gain a slight edge on the opening day. Karnataka would need their lower order to rally around CM Gautam for them to post a big total on the second day, after they lost their sixth wicket off the penultimate ball of the day. Shreyas Gopal played a forceful cut off offspinner Akshay Wakhare, but it was caught smartly by a diving Faiz Fazal at short gully.At 266 for 3, with Pandey and Karun Nair having added 148 runs, the defending champions were strongly placed to push for their second consecutive 500-plus total. But Thakur struck with the last ball of his second over in his return spell by trapping Nair lbw. Then, in the first ball of his next over, he snuck one past Pandey’s attempted drive to find the stumps.Up to that point, it had largely been a struggle for Vidarbha after their captain S Badrinath elected to field. They had sensed an opening after Robin Uthappa was dismissed lbw by Shrikanth Wagh, but Pandey and Nair had thwarted such notions by finding the middle ground between being overly aggressive and retreating into a shell. To make matters worse for Vidarbha, Badrinath hurt himself after leaping up to catch Pandey’s lofted on drive. While he could only get his fingertips to the ball, he landed heavily on his knee and had to be escorted off the field, and Wasim Jaffer stood in as captain.Pandey, in the meanwhile, had begun to accumulate his runs with a combination of late dabs and forceful drives on either side. Nair, on the other hand, got his striking fix by carting Wakhare down the ground. The Vidarbha attack, too, had an anodyne sameness to it, with an endless dose of seam bowling being administered; it wasn’t until the 29th over that spin was introduced.As Pandey and Nair got to their fifties, and the ball became softer, they whipped it around and collected singles and twos before unleashing a sudden explosion of big shots.In the morning, Karnataka had started cautiously, even a touch nervously, with the opening bowlers, particularly Swapnil Bandiwar, getting the ball to bounce from just short of a length. Openers Uthappa and KL Rahul were denied much width – Karnataka opened their account only at the end of the third over – and had to remain content watching the ball ping into the wicketkeeper’s gloves.Rahul, returning from a quadriceps injury and looking to gain some match practice ahead of the South Africa Test series, even survived a close lbw shout in the second over when Bandiwar rapped him on the back leg. It was Uthappa who first turned on the ignition switch by driving Bandiwar on either side of the wicket for a pair of sweetly-timed boundaries.Rahul seemed uncomfortable every time he was bounced, getting into awkward positions while attempting the pull. It was to one such stroke he eventually perished to, off medium-pacer Fazal’s bowling, as the 49-run opening partnership came to an end. R Samarth fell just before lunch after he scooped up a drive straight to Badrinath at mid-off. Uthappa looked good for more than his 58 before Wagh cut his innings short a little while after lunch.

Match facts

Saturday, April 19, 2008
Start time 17:00 local, (11:30 GMT)

The Big Picture

The second match of the tournament features the Chennai Super Kings taking on Kings XI Punjab in Mohali – and it’s being touted as Royal Saturday. From an Indian perspective there’s a buzz around this game given that six of India’s ICC World Twenty20-winning squad, and some of the most expensive acquisitions, will be pitted together. No other match-up includes so many such players and that’s obviously a big draw. Chennai are lead by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who after the Twenty20 victory was snapped up for a whopping US$1.5 million. On the other side is Yuvraj Singh, he of the six consecutive sixes in the World Twenty20, leading a team of this magnitude for the first time. Punjab are a very young and promising team, with only three players over 30, whereas Chennai’s strengths lie in their batting. How each cope with the other’s strengths, and smooth over their own weaknesses – Chennai have solid batsmen but are thin in the bowling stakes, while Punjab lack a potent spinner – will determine the winner of this contest.

Watch out for …

Yuvraj has already spoken of the mini-battle that the contest is likely to throw up between him and Dhoni. “It’s a good way to build the hype (around the competition) by pitching it as a Yuvraj versus Dhoni contest,” Yuvraj said. “Maybe, I will share a joke with him after the game.” Dhoni, however, will play in the side as a specialist batsman with Parthiv Patel set to keep wicket.Matthew Hayden and Brett Lee have terrorized opposing teams for a few years now but now it’s going to be one versus the other. Hayden’s domination with the bat has extended into the Twenty20 format and it’s unlikely he will change his approach against Lee, who is at the top of his game. Lee will know Hayden’s penchant for walking down the track, so expect a few tricks.Another contest with the makings of a classic is Kumar Sangakkara versus Muttiah Muralitharan. Sangakkara has kept admirably to Murali all over the world, and has no doubt faced up to him plenty of times in the nets; but in front of a huge crowd, with so much at stake? Keep your eyes on Sanga v Murali.

Team news

Punjab will have to decide who among Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Ramnaresh Sarwan sits out. Sangakkara keeps wicket and Sarwan is due to fly back for an ODI series against Australia, so Jayawardene may have to sit out this one. There are no specialist international openers, so Sangakkara could partner James Hopes at the top, though Sahil Kukreja is an option. Karan Goel could slot into the middle order with Tanmay Srivastava, the Under-19 allrounder. Lee and Sreesanth are almost certain to share the new ball, with Hopes and Irfan Pathan to follow. That means Kyle Mills will miss out, with either the two Sri Lankans or Sarwan likely to come in to complete the overseas quota. Piyush Chawla, the legspinner, should make up the spin quotient.Punjab (likely) 1 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 2 James Hopes, 3 Sahil Kukreja, 4 Ramnaresh Sarwan, 5 Yuvraj Singh (capt), 6 Irfan Pathan, 7 Tanmay Srivastava, 8 Karan Goel, 9 Brett Lee, 10 Piyush Chawla, 11 Sreesanth.The team that spent the most money in the main auction has a host of talent. Dhoni has proved to be a smart captain in limited-overs cricket, and in Hayden and Stephen Fleming, Chennai have a couple of excellent, dominant batsmen. Jacob Oram has a key role to play with bat and ball, so he could be preferred to Michael Hussey. S Badrinath and Suresh Raina make up the Indian talent. Explosive allrounder Albie Morkel isn’t around till the third game, which means Joginder Sharma will fill that slot. R Ashwin and Manpreet Gony will back up Murali. Dhoni won’t be keeping in the first few games, which means Parthiv will fill that role.Chennai (likely) 1 Matthew Hayden, 2 Stephen Fleming, 3 S Badrinath, 4 Suresh Raina, 5 Jacob Oram, 6 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), 7 Parthiv Patel (wk), 8 S Vidyut, 9 Joginder Sharma, 10 Manpreet Gony, 11 Muttiah Muralitharan.

Stats and trivia

West Indies hope Fidel Edwards can carry on from where he left off at Old Trafford as they look to restore some pride in the final Test against England. Although 2-0 down in the four-match contest, West Indies will be aiming to build on their improved showing in a 60-run third Test defeat when the series finale starts at Riverside on Friday.Old Trafford saw the return to Test cricket of Edwards, whose extra pace gave West Indies a physical threat they’d otherwise lacked so far this series. Often erratic, Edwards has an indifferent record of 67 wickets in 26 Tests at an expensive average of nearly 44 apiece.But he bowled better in Manchester than match figures of 4 for 148 in 32.1 overs would suggest. “The timing was right for Fidel in that Test match,” David Moore, the West Indies coach said. “He came in and bowled on a wicket that was hard and had a lot of bounce. He’d been short of top-quality cricket, so he needed some time to find his feet.”However, Moore stressed Edwards’s pace was part of an overall bowling strategy. “If Fidel is making them jump around a bit, we need someone down the other end to be putting pressure on as well,” he said. “Corey Collymore is very much an unsung player for us. He’s our top wicket-taker, he just keeps chipping away with a very good economy rate.”West Indies’ batting was bolstered last time by a defiant second innings 116 not out from Shivnarine Chanderpaul – their first century of the series – who’d missed the record innings and 283 run defeat in the second Test at Headingley with a knee injury. Moore said other players needed to follow Chanderpaul’s lead if West Indies were to achieve what be only a third win in 39 Tests.”We’ve got players who are getting good starts and not going on, from getting 40 or 50 to 80 or 100,” he said. The stand-in skipper Daren Ganga would relish a fifty after being lbw for five and nought to Steve Harmison at Old Trafford.”Daren’s an excellent tactician and excellent captain,” said Moore. “Unfortunately we haven’t seen the best of his batting yet, but over the last six to eight months he’s been averaging 40-plus, so I’m hoping his batting will come good for us.”

Matthew Hoggard has managed to test his injured hand during a bowling stint in the nets at Lord’s, raising hopes that he will be fit to take his place in the first Test against Pakistan on Thursday. Hoggard went through the session on during training on Wednesday and was able to match the other bowlers for pace. England will give him until the last minute to prove his fitness.It was his first bowl since suffering the freak injury at Canterbury when his Yorkshire team-mate, Tim Bresnan, stood on his hand while wearing spikes in his boots. Hoggard needed six stitches in his right hand and has spent time in an oxygen chamber to aid his recovery process.”He did some useful work in the nets today and every hour the hand is getting better. But we are going to give him as long as possible to prove his fitness,” Andrew Strauss told reporters after practice but added Hoggard would have to do more than prove his bowling fitness. “Fielding is important. I don’t think you can go into a game with a guy who is unable to field.”Hoggard has played in 32 consecutive Tests dating back to the 2004 tour of the Caribbean. In that time he has become an indispensable part of the England attack, and recently became the tenth Englishman to pass 200 Test wickets.”We all know Hoggy’s done a very good job for the England team over the last 24 months and, certainly since the Ashes, he’s probably been the pick of our bowlers,” Strauss said. “It’s very important we do get him on the pitch but if he doesn’t make it through it gives an opportunity to someone else.”Hoggard had visited a specialist on Sunday morning when it was decided to employ the same hyperbaric process at a hospital in St John’s Wood that Simon Jones used as he tried to recover from his ankle injury before the final Ashes Test last summer.Earlier in the week David Graveney, England’s chairman of selectors, said. “I think it would be reasonable to see him [Hoggard] bowl in the nets on Wednesday to see what he can do and what he can’t.”England’s spate of injuries has hit the team hard since the end of the Ashes, with Andrew Flintoff, Ashley Giles, Michael Vaughan and James Anderson all out of contention with a variety of ailments. “These things tend to happen in a cluster. It never rains – it pours,” Hoggard told reporters at Canterbury. “When you have one injury you seem to get more, and we are just in a very bad trot of luck.””As soon as I try and move it [right hand] or I hit it, it’s still quite sore, but we’ve still got three or four days,” Hoggard told BBC Sport on Tuesday. “If I can hold a cricket ball, that’s fine, but it’s the catching and the batting that’s going to be the difficult part, so we’ll just have to see how well the stitches have held together.””It’s very frustrating to be fit in every other aspect and just have a couple of scratches on your hand. I’m dying to play on Thursday, so I’ll be doing all I can, but we’ll just have to wait and see how it is.”Though Hoggard remains optimistic of playing at Lord’s, Gloucestershire’s Jon Lewis is on stand-by to step into his role having been named in a 13-man squad.

The Australian pressure came from all angles, and India could not cope. As the only team consistently to repel the world champions over the past three years, India are now expected to absorb it and move on towards a win or a draw. But after the top order’s second surrender of the match, reaching stumps on the final day would rate alongside the 2001 Kolkata miracle.While the Border-Gavaskar Trophy remains in Cricket Australia’s Melbourne headquarters, it has not really belonged Down Under since the 3-0 whitewash in 1999-2000. Under Sachin Tendulkar’s captaincy, a young side was outclassed by a blend of bounce, line and impatience. Lessons learned, they rebounded and twice held the Australians’ gaze. But in dropping to 2 for 4 in the first innings and 4 for 19 in the second here, they suffered a relapse that could take matches to recover from.A line change – from outside off to zeroing in on the stumps – has worked immediately for Australia’s bowlers. While eight of Australia’s second-innings batsmen went to close-in catches, four of India’s top six fell lbw. The tumble began with a terrible decision for Virender Sehwag, but the bowling was superb as both openers cut the ball viciously across the maze of cracks … thinkHarbhajan Singh nearing 140kph.Glenn McGrath’s first spell of five overs contained four maidens and leaked one miserly run. While Sehwag was still shaking his head McGrath almost trapped Rahul Dravid with a similarly sharp mover. This time the edge was heard before it hit the pads. The relentless accuracy continued, puncturing the batsmen’s confidence and opening wounds to exploit through theremainder of the series.Out of sorts until the end of the first innings, Jason Gillespie charged through Aakash Chopra, and softened up Sourav Ganguly’s stomach before his awful run-out. Shane Warne whirled closer to Muttiah Muralitharan’s world record as McGrath was pastured, and the vice did not loosen as Michael Kasprowicz began, Gillespie returned, and the pressure increased.Following his first-innings relaxing of the gap between bat and pad, Dravid played as he could – and how the others should. He dragged Yuvraj Singh along with him until McGrath scratched him out in his first over back. Another offcutter, another Indian lapse and another Gilchrist catch. As a reward McGrath ran in for seven overs, his longest spell of the match, and his 12 overs brought eight maidens and cost only nine runs. Once again India had been well and truly Scrooged.Peter English is Australasian editor of Wisden Cricinfo.

The much-awaited Australia tour of Sri Lanka starts in earnest on Friday, when the first ODI gets underway at Dambulla. Australia are determined to use the five-match series to overcome a reputation for touring badly in the subcontinent, while Sri Lanka – unsurprisingly and unashamedly – have pinned their hopes on their spinners.Sri Lanka are seeking to turn home conditions to their advantage. AfterAustralia’s mauling of a strong Indian side in the recent best-of-three VB Series finals, it’s clear that they need all the help they can get. The Dambulla outfield is lush and green but the pitch is bone-dry and will be painstakingly slow. Seamers dominated the last match at the venue, against England last November, but that was during the monsoon season. This time, it is the height of summer.The conditions, which the likely Sri Lanka XI experienced first-hand in a day-night practice match on Tuesday (they even used the same pitch that will be used on Friday), mean that Sri Lanka are set to make one change to the side that walloped England in their last one-dayer. Dinusha Fernando, Chaminda Vaas’s new-ball partner on that occasion, will be replaced by Kumar Dharmasena.The change leaves Marvan Atapattu, the one-day captain, with a multitude of spin options. Muttiah Muralitharan, his sore shoulder now fully repaired, will lead the attack with Dharmasena and Upul Chandana in support. As back-up, there will be Sanath Jayasuriya with his slow left-arm and Tillakaratne Dilshan with a few off-breaks.The strategy is entirely sensible judging by the past record of the two sides in Sri Lanka. Australia have never won a one-day series or tournament in Sri Lanka and have won only three of the 14 matches played. This compares with an 82% win record against Sri Lanka on home soil.”It is no secret that spin has been our strength and on these kind ofpitches, and it has to be slow bowlers that dominate,” said Atapattu after the team’s practice on Wednesday evening. “No matter how experienced or skillful you are, it is difficult to adapt to these conditions. We are expecting an assault to start with [from Australia’s batters], but strokemaking is a little difficult on these wickets.”Australia know what is in store and appear entirely comfortable with the challenge. Ricky Ponting has repeatedly voiced his confidence in his team adapting quickly and his desire for them to play the same exciting brand of cricket overseas that makes them virtually unbeatable at home. Indeed, Australia are so confident that they took the day off on Wednesday rather than get an early look at the conditions.Ponting has identified patience against Sri Lanka’s spinners as the key: “The game plan … is to keep wickets in hand for as long as we can against their spinners and be a bit more patient through the middle of our innings. You know that on these grounds whatever you sacrifice through the middle you can pick up at the end of the innings with wickets in hand.”Australia will decide upon the final line-up and, crucially, the bestbalance for the bowling attack when Trevor Hohns, the chairman of selectors, joins the team on Thursday. “We have got to look at whether we go in with two quick bowlers, an allrounder and an extra couple of spinners or three quick bowlers, an allrounder and spinner.”The likeliest scenario appears to be Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee with the new ball, Ian Harvey with his medium-paced all-sorts, and Brad Hogg, the only bowler to complete a full quota of overs in the practice match, as the specialist bowlers. The remaining 10 overs could be shared by the part-time spinners: Andrew Symonds, Michael Clarke and/or Simon Katich.Michael Bevan played no part in the President’s XI warm-up but Buchananinsisted that was merely precautionary. His batting is apparently no longer handicapped by his fractured rib and he will probably be slotted back into the team in place of Katich.The match will be a special day for Sanath Jayasuriya. Now 34-years-old and enjoying his role as a senior statesman in the team, he will become the most capped Sri Lankan ODI player in history when he walks onto the field for the 309th time. During the course of the series, Jayasuriya, now with 9172 runs, also has a chance of overhauling Aravinda de Silva’s record 9284 ODI-run aggregate.Sri Lanka (probable) 1 Sanath Jayasuriya, 2 Romesh Kaluwitharana (wk), 3 Marvan Atapattu (capt), 4 Kumar Sangakkara, 5 Mahela Jayawardene, 6 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 7 Upul Chandana, 8 Kumar Dharmasena, 9 Chaminda Vaas, 10 Nuwan Kulasekera, 11 Muttiah Muralitharan.Australia (probable) 1 Adam Gilchrist (wk), 2 Matthew Hayden, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Damien Martyn, 5 Andrew Symonds, 6 Michael Clarke, 7 Michael Bevan, 8 Ian Harvey, 9 Brad Hogg, 10 Brett Lee, 11 Jason Gillespie.

Northern Districts will be bolstered by the return of bowlers Graeme Aldridge and Bruce Martin for their State Championship match with Canterbury in Hamilton starting tomorrow.Both players are returning from injury.The full side for the game is: Robbie Hart (captain), Graeme Aldridge, Ian Butler, Matthew Hart, Nick Horsley, Hamish Marshall, James Marshall, Bruce Martin, Mark Orchard, Michael Parlane, Gareth West, Joseph Yovich.